LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




DDDlfiDD3fiEA 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Slielr 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



/■ 



THE 



COMING EMPIRE; 



OR, 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON 
HORSEBACK. 



UY 

IT. R MCDAXIELD and N. A. TAYLOR. 



Nwic mihi curto 
Ire licet miUo, vel^ si libet, usque Tarentum. 

Horace, Sat. 6. Lib. 1. 




A.S.BARNES & COMPANY, 

NEW YORK, CHICAGO. AND NEW ORLEANS. 

•V ^ — ^ 



Copyright, 
MCDA.NIELD & TAYLOR, 

1877. 






INTRODUCTION. 



ONE of the most entertaining works to me, is an account 
by Montaigne of a iiorse-back trip over portions of 
France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, in the year 1580, 
by himself and three or four of his select friends. It is a 
work in which the liveliness of the old Gascon continually 
sparkles ; though some may think that he talks too much 
of the stone in the bladder with which he was then afflicted. 
I have often thought that if I should visit Europe, I would 
have a great deal of pleasure in pursuing the route marked 
in his journal : comparing the people and the country 
along the way with what they were as he saw and described 
them three centuries ago. It would be, I judge, a most 
entertaining employment to any one of observing turn of 
mind : holding continually before him two pictures of the 
same thing : the one, delineated by a master hand, of what 
it was three hundred years ago, and the other the Present, 
with its changed or unchanged conditions. 

There the dead centuries move in living forms before 
him, and he may, as he chooses, pluck a rose from the 
Present, or put forth his hand and gather a fresh lily from 
the Past. 

And so it may be that even three hundred years hence, 
long as we may judge, after the writers of this little volume 
have gone to explore the mystery of the future, the Texan 
will ride over the course marked in this journal and feel a 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

peculiar pleasure in what he beholds, as he beholds it as it 
was years and years and centuries ago ; and it may be that 
some of them will then think of us as kindly as we now 
think of Montaigne. And then, however simple it be, 
this little volume may never lose its interest, but remain 
immortal, dear to Texans many, many years. 

And what a giant will Texas be three hundred years 
from now ! Heavens ! The thought recoils under the stu- 
pendous contemplation. But this it is safe to say : what- 
ever change and revolution may shake the American con- 
tinent and disperse its peoples, she will forever stand One 
Indivisible, the mightiest Empire of them all : with the 
flood-lights of her conquest and civilization flashing to the 
west and south-west. Nature and her God have knitted 
her together for a great destiny, and man cannot put her 
asunder. 

Think of the strides with which she is now bounding 
forward. Forty years ago, the feeble but struggling de- 
pendence of an ignorant power ; next an infant nationality 
toddling along in shirtless penury ; now, the great vigor- 
ous Hopeful of the American Union ! The next census 
will place her by the side of Ohio in numbers on the floor 
of the National Congress ; and the next after that will place 
her far above New York. The Texan youth of to-day 
will behold a far grander thing than their fathers beheld , 
and it is a pleasant thought for some of us to know that 
we shall be well represented in that line. Of course, the 
writer of this cannot be a witness of her full-grown glory ; 
but he will do her all the good he can, and will at least 
help to twine one little flower with her splendid garland. 

We have written mostly of wildernesses and rocks. In 
a few years cities will illumine those wildernesses, and 
lovers will tell their sweet tales on the very rocks from 
which we beheld the plaintive wolf, and saw the ravings 
of the lions of the mountains. 



INTEODUCTION. 7 

Only let her statesmanship be akin to her great destiny. 

Advance ! is her watchword, but I cannot say that i^. 
will all be with Peace or not. 

This little volume is the Joint work of two hands, but 
we have generally used the single pronoun, as one is less 
cumbersome than two. 



co]:^^TE]s^Ts. 



DIVISION I. 

From Houston to New Braunfels. 

Texas Western Railway, 9 — Houston, 10 — My Departure, 11 — The 
"Houston Prairie," 11 — Wliat I would do, 13 — If I were a 
Hunter, 15 — The Giant and the Princess, 15 — A Talk about Cat- 
tle-raising, 16 — The Brazos and its " Bottoms," 18 — The River, 
21— The Old Ferryman, 23— San Felipe de Austin, 27— Cat 
Springs, 29 — Geological, 31 — A Talk with the Merchant, 32 — 
Of Various Experiences, 33 — A Strange Apparition, 39 — La- 
grange. The Colorado, 43 — The Devil and Strap Buckner, 49 — 
He Cometh, 58 — La Noche Triste, 60 — The Day of Events, 65 — 
He Returns, 71— Snake Prairie, 74— The Vale of Seclusive, 76— 
Post Oak Belts, 78— Plum Creek, 81— Mesquite Chaparral, 82— 
Hog-wallow Prairies, 85 — Lockhart, 89 — Wealth Undeveloped. 
— West Texas Scenery, 91 — The Jackass Rabbit, 93 — The San 
Marcos, 94 — Some Reflections, 98 — Speculations about Mesquite 
Grass, 99— The Guadalupe, 101. 



DIVISION n. 

New Braunfels to San Antonio. 

New Braunfels, 103— Westward and Poesy, 106— My Cibolo, 109 — 
Continuation, 110 — Salado, 110 — Chaparral Thoughts, 113 — 
San Antonio, 114— Mixed, 116— Society, 117— The Verge.— 
Whence She Prospers, 117— Her Past, 119— Batile-Scarred, 120— 
The Alamo, 121— Her Future, 133— The Mexicans, 134— To 
Arms, 137. 



CONTENTS. 7 

DIVISION III. 

San Antonio to Fredericksburg. 

The Texas Pony, 128— The Comal, 129— Rivers Under the Ground, 
130— The siiore of the Eocene Sea, 132— Mv Cibolo Again, 133— 
Three Coyotes, 134— Boerne, 137— The Products, 138— Sheep 
Husbandry, 139 — The Society of Shepherds, 141— George Wil- 
kins Kendall, 144 — Wild Nature and Wild Beasts, 146 — The 
Sisterdalians, 149 — The Finest Country I ev'er Saw, 151 — Wheat, 
152— What this Wheat Offers the Texas Ports, 153 — The Peo- 
ple, 154 — Athena, 155 — Night in Athena, 156 — Geological Ret- 
rospections, 158 — Heaven, 161 — A Strange Encounter. — Java- 
linas, 162 — Anchoritic, 166 — Incomprehensible, 168 — Elevated, 
169— Dismal, 170— Unearthly, 170— Piscine, 172— Granitic Ex- 
plosion.— The Primeval World, 174— Earthquake Thoughts, 175 
—The Promised Land, 176— Fredericksburg, 176— The Sort of 
People you see, 178. 

DIVISION IV. 

Fredericksburg to Fort Concho. 

Indian Talk, 179— Fogs and Cloud-Bursts, 180— Lost Rocks.— The 
Texas Cataclysm, 181— The Primitive Hills, 183— Birds that are 
Peculiar, 184— Not All Bad, 187— A Disappointment.— The Old 
Shepherd, 188— Buen Retiro, 190— Loyal Valley.— The Ger- 
mans and a Higher Civilization, 192 — A Garden in a Wilder- 
ness, 194 — Physical Features, 195 — How One feels when He 
cannot tell which End to take, 195 — The Compass and Aurora, 
197 — Ruin. — The Young Geologist, 198 — The Frontiersman. — 
The War of the Sheafs and Horns, 200— Softened, 203— River 
Llano, 203— Fort Mason.— A Surprise, 205 — The Tamed Lion and 
the Wild One, 206— R. E. Lee, 208— The Wilderness and the 
Live-Oak, 209 — A Gentleman in Distressed Circumstances, 210 — 
Night, 215— The Queen and the Lily, 216— Two Surprises, 218 
Peculiar. — Eaves-dropping, 221 — Where the Peris dwell, 222 — 
Morning, 223— Miranda, 224— Airy Beings, 225— The Wilder- 
ness and Society, 227 — Ships that meet at Sea, 228 — A Conver- 
sation on the Road. 229 — River San Saba. — Irrigation, 230 — 
. Menardville.— The Ultima Thulians, 231— The Female Ultima 



CONTENTS. 

Thulians, 235 — Coglan's Cave and what befell, 238 — Ancient 
Ruins, 241 — Fort McKavett, — Military Life in the Wilderness, 
242 — The Horned Frogs, 244 — Bivouac with Ebony Soldiers, 
246 — Kickapoo Springs. — Pretty but Scaly, 249 — Hail Storms, 
250 — Company Enough. — A Texas Norther, 252. 



DIVISION V. 

Concho to Pecos. 

Camp Concho. — All Grotesque, 259 — Art imitates Her, 261 — Big 
Expectations. — And what they came To, 263 — The Holy An- 
gels, 264— The Cemetery.—" Unknown," 266— Col. Anderson. 
— Compagnons du Voyage, 267 — A Populous City. — Subterra- 
nean Forests, 269 — A Mixed and Happy Family, 272 — The Last 
of them, 274— Startled.— The Beautiful Swan, 274— A Serene 
Picture —The Days of Old, 276— Antelopes, 277— Souvenirs.— 
The Gorge of the Shadow of Death, 280 — Amazement. — The 
American Bison, 281 — A Glance into the Past and Future, 285 — 
The Mourner by the Hearse, 287 — Per contra, 289 — A Specula- 
tion in which there is Money, 290 — Concho Springs. — Et tu 
Brute ! 291 — Retrospection. — Artesian Wells, 292 — In Darkness, 
294— Voices of the Night, 296— Evoe !— The Charge! 298— 
Whence came He? 301— Dew-Drops, 303— The Hand of Provi- 
dence. — The Volcanic Fountains, 304 — The Sentinels and 
Prophets, 305 — Pursuit and Death. — The Jaguar, 306 — A Change 
indeed.— The Floral Fiend, 308— A Band of Philosophers, 309 
— Seat of Desolation. — The Skeletons in Battle Array, 310 — Of 
Him that ate Red-Riding Hood, 313 — What it has been. — A 
Jurassic Sea, 314 — Plains, 316 — A Voice in the Wilderness, 316. 



DIVISION VL 
Pecos to Pkesidio Del Norte. 

A Morning Bath, 320— The Most Remarkable River in the World, 
324— The Cause of it.— The Hand of the Architect, 326— His 
Water, 327— The Nile and my Pecos, 327— The Soil ; Irrigation 
and Navigation, 328 — Adam's Curse. — Fantastic Shapes, 330 — 
The Rose in the Wilderness.— W^hat it would be, 332— Remark- 
able Region.— A Dolorous Day, 335— The Night of Wolves, 337 



CONTENTS. 9 

— Among the Minerals. — "There they are, for a Factl" 340 — 
The Lost Creek. — Silver. — The Lions of the Mountains, 345 — 
The Pass.— The Abysmal Creek and Fall of Bruin, 349— Per- 
plexity that is Providentially Relieved. — A Ride in Mexico, 353. 



DIVISION VII. 

Presidio Del Norte to Houston. 

How the Vine flourishes, 359— The Mexican Snob.— How Greatness 
Feels, 360— Presidio at Night.— Fandango, 364— Among the 
Prospectors.- The Chinati Mountains, 365 — A Supper lost.— 
The Boast of the Coward, 368— Departure from Friends, 373— 
The Broncos.— The Great Plains, 374— Arrayed in White.— The 
Monarch, 375— Fort Davis.— Man's Inhumanity, 378— Limpia 
Canyon, 383— Barilla Springs.— A Norther on the Staked 
Plain, 384— Conclusion, 388. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 



IN 



TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 



I. 

DIVISION I. 



HAVING lately accomplished a very long ride in the 
great State of Texas, I have concluded to write out 
my notes in order that others may see what I saw, and 
feel somewhat as I felt. And first, as to my motives for 
the trip. 

I had taken a contract to do some work on the 

Texas Western Railway, 

An enterprise but recently projected and then just taking 
its start. It was planned by some enterprising gentlemen 
of Houston, who believed it would add to the importance 
of their city and become a first-class investment. After 
investigating the prospects of the road, and considering 
that the line marked out for it will connect the Pacific in 
California with the waters of the Atlantic, by a route three 
hundred miles shorter than any other, over a country offer- 
ing no great difiiculcies in conformation and none in cli- 
mate, I became a stockholder, and felt an interest in the 



10 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

road. Therefore, after completiTig a portion of my con- 
tract, and having some leisure, I undertook my long ride 
on horseback, to study the country along the proposed 
route, as far as Mexico, with my own eyes. The gauge of 
this road is three feet — a system upon which I believe most 
of the railroads of the future will be built. Perhaps in 
the general railroad system as it is, too much of that has 
been sacrificed to speed which had been better given to 
transportation. We can afford to live slower when by that 
we live better and cheaper ; and what is tlius saved will 
increase the comforts of those from whose toil the cities 
are made and the waters of the oceans are white with rich 
argosies. He who drives the plow does it all. 

Houston. 

It was my starting point, as it is of the road of which I 
spoke. It is the next most populous place in Texas, sec- 
ond only to that beautiful " Sea-Cybele," which looks from 
orange and oleander groves upon the bine waters of the 
Gulf on the one hand, and the broad, placid bay on the 
other.* Its population is about twenty-six thousand, an 
increase of three to one in seven years. It is the most in- 
terior point to which the tide-waters of the Gulf ascend. 
Though fifty miles inland, the sea practically rolls within 
six miles of it, and can be easily made to roll at its doors. 
Ocean steamers ride to Clinton, six miles below, and lesser 
craft penetrate the heart of the city. Thus by railway to 
Clinton, Houston is within ten minutes of the sea. It is 
the centre of eight railways, which are daily extending her 
commerce and influence, and giving access to every portion 
of the great domain around her. The sea knocks at her 
doors, and she has only to heed the summons. It offers 
her a summer pathway to Mexico, the West Indies, Cen- 
tral America and South America — regions of the *' sweet 

* Galveston, 



TWO TH0USA:N'D miles in TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 11 

south," whose trade enriches those who cultivate it. When 
Houston and Galveston can sell wheat and flour nearly as 
cheap as St. Louis, their fortune is made, and they step 
forth at once among the great cities of the land. All tliat 
they need, to do this, is more farmers upon the fertile bo- 
som of the great State, whose capacity to produce the best 
wheat in the world is almost without limit. When they 
become great flour exporting marts, other manufactures 
will be necessary and will spring up like works of magic, 
thus making them great exporters of other articles also. 
To my view nothing can be clearer than the future great- 
ness of tliese two cities. Their "back country " will be 
not only the grand domain of Texas, but the whole vast 
region between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. 

My Depaeture. 

The sun shone brightly on the morning of January 2d, 
1876, and the breath of spring was in the air. I had re- 
tired to bed on the night of the first, ready for my jour- 
ney when the lark shook the dew off his wings. An early 
breakfast and my staunch steed stood champing the bit in 
his eagerness to be on the way. Little recked he of the far 
journey before him. After the manner of the bold war- 
rior of old, he said, " I do not ask how long it is, but where 
it is ?" My paraphernalia consisted of one extra blouse, a 
haversack, a pocket map and compass and spy-glass ; my 
arms of a pocket-knife. Thus accoutred, I rode due 
west along the line of the Texas Western Railway, with no 
other companion save my eyes and my thoughts. Much 
of the way there was no road, and my path was much like 
that of a ship over the trackless sea. 

The '^Houston Praieie." 

About four miles from Houston the last vestige of hu- 
man habitation disappears, and I ride upon a prairie 



12 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

which to the westward appears boundless. It is dead of 
winter, but it smiles with a green luxuriance upon which 
ten, nay, fifty thousand cattle are feeding, and some are 
basking in the sunshine, chewing the cud with a lazy air 
of contentment. To the right and left, ten miles apart, 
are dark lines of forest, which mark the sleepy course of 
Buffalo Bayou on the one hand, and Bray's Bayou on the 
other. This prairie is as smooth as a billiard table, with 
scarcely perceptible inclination to either bayou. The soil 
is jet black, and evidently very strong and rich. Marl 
crops out in many places, indicating that this fine fertilizer 
exists in abundance a few feet below. Numerous farms 
are seen in the distance along the bayou's, but not one in- 
trudes upon the prairie. Why should such an expanse of 
fertile lands be left in nature's wildness ? Why should this 
rich heiress not be plucked ? Simply because the Texan 
tvill hug the forest and the stream. There he builds his 
home, and tills his field, and this he leaves to his cattle to 
roam upon at will. He little suspects and little cares 
for the wealth of the virgin heiress. Give this Houston 
Prairie drainage into the bayous and then tickle her bosom 
with a plow, and see how quickly she will laugh with the 
choicest products of the earth. The advancing tide of 
population will soon overflow the valleys and break through 
the forests, and then the Houston Prairie will blossom like 
a great garden. With a soil so rich that it will produce 
almost anything, and a climate so gentle that fresh fruits 
from the field may be gathered every day of the year, it 
cannot be otherwise. 

But, one will say, what about water and wood for 
fencing and fuel ? As for the first, the clouds will keep 
your under-ground cisterns always filled with tl' e purest and 
coolest water ; for fencing and building the vast pineries 
which begin at Houston and extend hundreds of miles 
eastward, ofi'er illimitable supplies of lumber, and for fuel. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 13 

the railroad passing through the centre of this prairie, will 
deliver excellent oak from the great Brazos Bottoms at 
three dollars per cord or less. I regard this very spot as 
one of the choicest on earth for the farmer, for besides the 
favorable conditions of soil and climate, he has in the 
rapidly growing cities within easy reach of him, a cash 
purchaser for all he can produce ; and they are markets 
which he need not fear he can overstock. They have abun- 
dant outlets to other markets, north, east and west, eager 
to buy all that they cannot themselves consume. 

And yet these noble lands are now begging for pur- 
chasers who will utilize them, at fifty cents to two dollars 
an acre ! 

What I Would Do. 

Suppose I should encamp permanently on this prairie. 
I should in the first place buy two hundred acres of 
land. This I would immediately enclose with a plank 
fence ; after which I would plant just inside the fence, a 
hedge of the beautiful pyracanth, which, long before the 
fence has decayed, will be ready to take its place with a living 
wall of green foliage and blossoms, and berries and thorns, 
through whose intricate mazes nothing larger than a rab- 
bit can pass. It will endure through generations. Then 
I would erect my cottage, with stables and barns, and I 
would take great care, even with little expenditure of 
money, that they are beautiful and pleasing to the eye — 
so that the wayfarer in passing by should say: ^^ There 
lives one of taste and civilization ! " Then I would adorn 
my grounds witli flowers and shrubbery, not only to please 
my eye and the stranger's, but that the little ones who 
might one day prance about them should laugh and be as 
happy as fairies, and have their little hearts warmed and 
expanded, from their first impressions with the love of the 
beautiful and good. And what is so well calculated to do 



14 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

this as the opening perfumed flowers, and the birds and 
gaudy butterflies that sport and sing among them ? Then 
I would plant forty acres to the pear, the peach, the plum 
and the grape ; then I would plant forty acres with young 
trees gathered from the forests, to be my park and to give 
a varied beauty to the scene. Then I should buy a dozen 
excellent milk cows, natives of the prairie. Then I would 
pitch my crops in season, and garner and glean in season, and 
accumulate every day. Then if I had not a wife, I should 
make haste to get one. If things were not yet all beauti- 
ful in my house and around it, I would expect them at 
once to become so, and that the curds, cream and butter, 
manipulated by female hands, would add no small increase 
to my income. Above all, I should expect her to be beau- 
tiful and good, and I would make it my duty to see that 
everything around her was beautiful — so far as I could — 
in order that'she might excel it. I think a man is an in- 
tinite villain who puts a woman in a dirty, slouchy home ; 
and what a wrong he does his young daughters ! A man 
"who thus lives lias never known the beauty and richness 
of the female heart. He is only distinguished from the 
brute in that he walks on two legs and they on four. To 
do all of this, he need not be rich ; he need only have a 
good heart and intelligence, and be industrious. I hold 
that nearly all women would be beautiful and good, if their 
husbands were only worthy that they should be. 

Would I not be happy thus encamped ? He who cul- 
tivates the bosom of mother Earth intelligently and lov- 
ingly, cultivates God ; and he who cultivates God, culti- 
vates and secures happiness. I believe no one ever culti- 
vated mother Earth intelligently and lovingly, who did 
not live happy and die blest. If one would cultivate Art 
and Letters also, this is the life he should lead ; because 
the fancy and thought are so free in their unrestrained 
independence. The bird sings all the more sweetly 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 15 

when he knows that his mate and her little ones are all 

right. 

If I WERE A Hunter, 

I think I would surely pitch my tent right here. As 
evening fell, the prairie swarmed with wild fowl and was 
noisy with their clamor. Geese in large flocks were pas- 
turing on the tender herbage, and other flocks were flying 
hither and thither, emitting their peculiar cry of ''conk, 
conk," as they flew. Many came so near me that I might 
have killed them with a pocket pistol. Sand-hill cranes, 
like armies in grey marched leisurely over the plain ; curlews 
and plover were at every turn ; prairie chickens rose con- 
tinually on the wing, and black-birds or grackle were lit- 
erally in myriads. 

The Giant and the Princess. 

As it grew dusk a long dark line rose up in the west 
before me, and I knew by this and the increasing mots or 
islands of timber, that the prairie was about to terminate^ 
upon the forests of the Brazos Bottoms. At dark I rode 
upon a small habitation on the edge of the forest, where I 
asked for and obtained food and rest for the night. It was 
the home of a stock-man, who paid little attention to till- 
age of the soil. He was bronzed and freckled, booted and 
bearded, rough-hewn outwardly, but polite, hospitable and 
intelligent. There was an air of considerable comfort about 
his small residence, and his wife was a tidy, pleasant little 
lady. She was so small in comparison with the size of her 
husband that I thought of a giant married to a little prin- 
cess, whom he had stolen and borne away to his castle. 
There was a meekness and resignation about this little 
lady which increased the delusion. It occurred to me that 
she would like to see her giant look handsomer in her pres- 
ence, and not go about the house in his cow-clothes, with 



10 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

liis great spurs clanking at his heels, and was sick at lieart 
because he would not. 

Here was an example of a native gentleman who had 
been turned wrong-side-out by association with rough but 
honest people, who know little and care less for the ameni- 
ties of civilization. That he was a born gentleman was 
palpable, but that he was no gentleman now, at least in 
outward appearance, was also palpable. He had allowed 
the polish to be worn away from him gradually until hardly 
a bit was left. It is said that no gentleman can habitually 
follow a cow's tail without thus sinking, and evidence of 
this tendency is pointed to in the semi-civilized or barbar- 
ous condition of all races who live by their herds ; but in 
this country ]t is certainly the fault of the gentlemen them- 
selves that this should be so. I dare say that when this 
giant courted his princess he did not do so with his cow- 
clothes on and his spurs, but was adorned and scented like 
a big lily of the field. Why cannot he thus adorn himself 
in her presence now, and arrest the tendency to revert back 
to barbarism ? * 

A Talk about Cattle-raising. 

After supper the giant sat by me on the gallery, and we 
smoked, I a clay pipe and he a cob one. The night was so 
bland that I could hardly think of it as winter. While he 
spake his legs were thrown over the railing of the gallery, 
and his feet projected a considerable distance above his 
head. I asked him with what rapidity his cattle increased. 
His reply was : *' That, sir, I can hardly tell you. I keep 
no books. They say you can calculate on an increase of 

* The author of the Vestiges of Creation seems to have been convinced that the 
life of the herdsman leads to barbarism. He says in his chapter on the Early His- 
tory of Mankind : " Even men who have been civilized, when transfeiTed to a 
wide wilderness, where each has to work hard and isolatedly for the first requi- 
sites of life, soon show a retrogression to barbarism ; witness the plains of Aus- 
tralia, as well as the backwoods of Canada and the prairies of Texas." 



TWO THOUSAiJ^D MILES LN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 1? 

twenty-five to thirty-three per cent a year, and that might 
be so if none were stolen and none strayed away. About 
all I know of it is that they increase fast enough to keep 
me pretty busy, what with branding calves and chasing the 
runaways back from the ends of creation. It is a business 
that you must watch closely, else you may start this year 
t^ith a thousand head and in a few years find yourself 
with none." 

" What will become of them ? " 

^' Other people will brand your calves, while the old ones 
will die or stray away. After a calf has become a year old 
without a brand, it is the custom to look upon him as pub- 
lic property. He belongs to the first one who will catch 
and brand him. I know men who have accumulated large 
stocks in this way. A man must be up and doing, sir, and 
if he cannot make up his mind to do this he had better let 
the cattle business alone. I am so continually in the sad- 
dle that I don't feel right elsewhere." 

" Do you find ready sale for your beeves ?" 

" No trouble about that. When I find myself run 
ning short of pocket change, I gather a few head and drivt^ 
them to Houston, where they will sell readily at fifteen to 
twenty-five dollars a head. Beeves are like cotton — ready 
sale in any market in the world." 

*' You never feed vour cattle ?" 

''Oh, no, but I am thinking of starting a little farm 
near Houston, where I shall raise corn, and always keep a 
few corn-fed beeves on hand. Such cattle will bring 
fancy prices." 

He was totally unable to tell me how many cattle he 
had, but evidently supposed that he had several thousand. 

I had ridden nearly forty miles since morning, and 
slept well. 



II. 



The Brazos ais^d its ''Bottoms." 

THE giant refused to take a fee for my board and lodg- 
ing, and at sunrise I was on my way. I did not feel 
so comfortable as yesterday. It was my first trip on horse- 
back since several months^ and my contact with the saddle 
had become a great grievance ; insomuch that I often 
found myself thinking of the cushioned arm-chair before 
my grate. 

I was now penetrating the Brazos Bottom, famed for 
fertility. Its course was marked by a long line of forest 
rising like a great wall abruptly against the prairie, save 
where, here and there, the forest showed its tendency to 
advance beyond tl>e line, by groves and narrow belts of 
timber thrown out upon the prairie. The level of the bot- 
tom is about twenty feet below the prairie, and the descent 
is nearly as precipitous as a wall. On entering it I fo md 
I had passed from a region of light into one of gloom and 
darkness. The gigantic pecan, cottonwood and magnolia 
threw a shade upon the tops of their lesser neighbors, — the 
oak, the elm, the ash, the hackberry — and these in turn 
threw a denser shade upon the ground. From the tops of 
the lesser to the tops of the most gigantic climbed the wild 
grape, weaving ladders here and a perfect net-work there, 
on which it seemed that one could climb and w^alk at ease 
from tree to tree. Below them all was the underbrush, 
dense as an African jungle, over which the wild convolvulus 
and woodbine and bramble spread a mantle of texture so 
close that the tomtit could hardly hop through it. Through 



TWO THOUSAND AIILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. '9 

all of these mantles the snn utterly refused to shine, and the 
heavy coating of fallen leaves and limbs and logs rotted on 
the ground in eternal darkness and damp. The silence was 
unbroken save by the tapping of the woodpecker, the chat- 
tering of the squirrel, and the hooting of the owl, even at 
midday, who here found a perpetual reign of night. Oc- 
casionally I could see the branches of the pecan and cotton- 
wood and magnolia waving to the Avind far above, but its 
voice was unheard through the thick obstruction of vine 
and bough and foliage. Trees that are deciduous else- 
where are evergreen here, for in this dark, damp forest no 
frost ever comes to wither the leaves. He may scatter his 
glittering gems in profusion on the grass of the prairies 
hard by, but his sparkling beauty and his crisp touch are 
here all unknown. I have never seen a forest in my life 
where the trees stood so closely together. In many places 
they rest and lean against each other, and their boughs, 
except of the most gigantic, are all interlocked. What an 
immense store of fuel and building wood is here accumu- 
lated for the prairies, which stretch away to the east and 
west like seas ! 

The gloom is penetrated here and there by wide open- 
ings cut by the old-time planters, who derived from the 
matchless soil princely incomes, which were lavishly ex- 
pended. After the war these great plantations were aban- 
doned, some entirely and others in part. Even now many 
of the richest fields lie waste and un tilled, for the want of 
willing hands. The generous soil yields readily a bale of 
cotton to the acre, often a bale and a half, a hogshead of 
sugar, or sixty to a hundred bushels of corn. I saw a field 
which had been in cultivation over thirty years in succes- 
sion, without receiving one pound of manuring, except 
what the birds and the animals had cast in flying or wan- 
dering over it, and yet its crops were as exuberant as when 
first opened. 



20 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

But can a residence in this deep entanglement be 
healthy ? Those who live here say it is so ; and so do the 
Esquimaux say that their land is the most delightful and 
salubrious under the canopy. If the alligators should be 
consulted they would protest that the dark swamps of 
Louisiana, rich in fogs and vapors, were all that any rea- 
sonable being could desire. It is simply impossible that 
the enormous quantity of carbonic acid gas, ev€>lved from 
the decaying vegetation around me, should not infect the 
pure air. I have seen none who did not look well and ro- 
bust, but I dare say that those who were shaking with 
chills staid home by the fire. There is suspicious evidence 
in the fact that the old planters built their residences on 
the high grounds of the prairie, and in the further fact, 
which I discovered, that quinine seems to be a favorite 
drug in the locality. In Houston it is common to see 
empty beer bottles lying about tlie streets, and I saw two 
empty quinine bottles lying by the road side in the Brazos 
Bottom. I noticed those two bottles closely, and I thought 
they spoke a sermon. If I should make up my mind to 
settle in the Brazos Bottom, I would certainly follow the 
example of the old planters, and pitch my tent on the prai- 
rie, and I would select a position from which the wind 
would reach me as rarely as possible from the direction of 
the Bottom. 

Tlie middle of the great Bottom varies exceedingly, 
from three miles to twenty and even more. As a rule, it 
narrows ascending the stream, and broadens descending. 
A few miles below me it broadens rapidly to the east, 
while to the west, a few miles still lower, it continues un- 
broken, though not all covered with forest, until it unites 
with the valley of the Colorado, forming an area of fertility, 
composing the counties of Fort Bend and Wharton in part, 
and Brazoria and Matagorda wholly, certainly unsurpassed, 
if equalled elsewhere in the world. Tliat great tract has 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN .TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 21 

been formed entirely by the sediment of the two rivers and 
decayed vegetation^ and is of a depth which no one has 
ever yet explored. It is a region which absolutely laughs 
with rich harvests under the plow, with a climate made 
salubrious by the almost perpetual breeze from the Gulf ; 
and the jungle there does not exist except on the banks of 
the rivers. It is unharmed alike by drouglit or much rain, 
for the soil is so porous and retentive of moisture, that 
when the rains come not, it nightly drinks its fill from the 
dews of heaven ; and when the rains come too abundantly, 
the porous soil swallows it up and conducts it away to un- 
known depths. And yet with all this fertility and salu- 
brity, that portion of Texas is now one of the most neg- 
lected in the State. Formerly the seat of wealthy planters, 
it is now to a great extent abandoned to negroes, who are 
said to be falling back to a state of semi-barbarism. For 
this reason the immigrant shuns it as a Golgotha, and its 
noble acres are begging for purchasers at almost any price. 
But so noble a country cannot always remain desolate and 
a beggar. It will grow prosperous and rich again, as surely 
as merit wUl one dav a'eap its reward. 

The River. 

I rode upon the river so suddenly that had it been 
night, and my horse's eyes no better than my own, I might 
have tumbled headlong into the flood, and there an 
end ; so completely was it hidden by the dense forest and 
undergrowth on its bank, and so deep was the channel 
through which it flowed as silently as Lethe. 

" Far off from there a slow and silent stream, 
Lethe the river of oblivion, rolls 
Her watery lab}'rinth, whereof who drinks, 
Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain." 

I copy these lines because the sombre imagery which 



22 TWO THOUSAND MILFS IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

they conjure np conveys a good impression of the Brazos, 
creeping half stagnant under the dismal shades. Then 
think of its dark water, four hundred feet across, and 
picture a half rotten log floating here, and another there, 
scarcely seeming to move, each loaded with a cargo of 
terrapins, and you have it. 

This is the mightiest river in Texas that flows exclu- 
sively through Texas soil, being a small measure more 
bulkv in volume than its twin brother, the Colorado. It 
is between six and seven hundred miles long, marked 
along its whole course by the same rich valley and tim- 
bered bottom, forming a region of fertility capable of pro- 
ducing more wealth probably than any river in the world, 
the Mississippi alone excepted. On its banks a mighty 
nation might flourish, independent of the world besides. 
The sugar of the tropics and all the products of the tem- 
perate regions find here their most genial home, and yield 
such abundance as scarcely anywhere else. The old 
Spaniards called this river Brazos de Dios, the '' Arms of 
God," by which they meant to express its boundless mu- 
nificence and a prophecy of the millions who will prosper 
on its banks. Mighty as it is, it is not navigable except 
about fifty miles from its mouth, on account of numerous 
shifting sand-banks that obstruct its course. Silent and 
sleepy as it now is, it often booms for months like a roaring 
sea, invading the bottoms almost annually, with just suf- 
ficient depth to bestow another gift of fertility. When it 
spreads over the bottoms it is like a dead lake, the water 
halting to deposit its rich sediment and forbearing to take 
any away. Surely this does indeed look like the ''Arms 
of God ! " 

The extraordinary fertility of the lands bordering the 
Brazos is easily explained when we consider the remarkable 
region from which it draws its fertilizing materials. Its 
main fork flows nearlv two hundred miles through a re- 



TWO THOUSAIs^D MILES IN^ TEXAS O:^^ HORSEBACK. 23 

gion in which gypsum abounds, charging its waters with 
sulphur and lime ; tlie Salt Fork, a bold, beautiful stream, 
with water as clear as that of mid-ocean, descends throuo-h 
salty plains and over beds of salt, mixing its brine with 
the sulphur and lime ; * the South Fork winds slowly 
through lands filled with soda and magnesia, and the 
Clear Fork contributes its volume of sweet water from fer- 
tile plain and forest whose soil has been formed of the 
debris of all of these. Thus the Brazos descends from a 
giant laboratory in which nature compounds the richest 
mineral fertilizers, and charges its waters with them to 
bless the regions below. Add to these the millions and 
millions of tons of vegetable matter decaying annually in 
the valleys, and the extraordinary fertility is explained. 
The Mle has been in cultivation probably fifty-five cen- 
turies, with its annual yield undiminished, and this 
Brazos, I doubt not, can excel that. 

The Old Ferrymait. 

Descending the steep bank to the water thirty feet 
below, I saw an old ferryman sitting in his boat, with his 
chin resting upon his left hand, apparently absorbed in 
meditation. A large white crane standing like a statue on 
one leg on the opposite shore, seemed to be trying to rival 
him in lonesomeness and meditation. The soft earth of 
the bank gave forth no sound under my horse's feet as I 
descended, and' the old gentleman sat and contemplated 

* I have never seen any beds of salt, or rock salt, in the region of the Salt 
Fork, but have no doubt that thej' exist, and that the brine of the river is 
derived from them. Along its borders I saw native crystal salt, as clear as 
ice. Its waters are considerably more briiay than the ocean. I saw also a small 
clear pond near the river, very salty, which was filled with fish resembling the 
sheeps-head. I saw no fish in the river, though doubtless they are there. I 
thought the finding of these salt-water fish was remarkable, as they were sepa- 
ratetl from the ocean at least five hundred miles. How did they get there ? 
Does a peculiar form of life come, when the peculiar condition suited to its exist- 
ence, arrives ? 



24 TWO THOUSAXD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

until mj horse, stepping on the boat, startled him. He 
rose with a complaisant obeisance and his eyes sparkled 
with the prospect of earning a few cents. ^^ Sarvant, sir ! " 
said he. He was an aged and venerable negro, bis head 
almost as white as wool, but his stout, straight form and 
full face showed that age had dealt kindly with him. 
There was something about him that seemed to say that 
the old man was of good society and had seen better days. 

As he pulled me across, I said: "Uncle, what do you 
think of things ? " 

He turned to me and looked inquiringly, and said: ''Of 
what things, sarvant, sir ? " 

" Of yon crane sitting on the opposite shore, on one 
leg?" 

''' I think that he will soon fly away." 

'* And leave me as other things have left me ! There 
seems to be a mystery about that solemn creature. He 
looks as if he did not have a friend in the world. He 
looks like the spirit of one departed, who has visited his 
former haunts and sits melancholy over what he beholds, 
with his mind far away in the past. Uncle, may not that 
be the departed spirit of some one of the rich planters who 
once dwelt hereabout and now stands deploring the desola- 
tion that has befallen his estates and his children?" 

The old man looked at me, and then looked at the 
crane, and when he turned again I thought I beheld a tear 
in his eye. '* If that is the spirit of my old master," said 
he, looking at the crane suspiciously, " I know he can't 
wish any harm to me. Old master always liked old Ned." 

"And yet he stands \yith his head tucked under his 
wing, as if he loved you not." 

"No, sir," said he, shaking his head and eying the 
crane, "' that is not my old master — God rest him! " 

The crane pulled his head from under his wing, gave a 
stately flap, and flew down the dark river, his legs pro- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 25 

jected behind him. The old man watched him departing 
with a sigh of relief. 

'^ Uncle Ned, what do you think of the times? " said I. 

" Ah, young master, they're not what they was in the 
old timey days. That crane did shorely put me to think- 
ing. He looked exactly like I feels when I git to thinking 
of the old timey days. There ain't no sich days now." 

"^ Uncle Ned, does not the sun shine as brightly; do not 
the dews descend and the rains fall as regularly; do not 
the crops grow as well, and do not the birds sing as sweetly 
as in the old timey days ? " 

*'The same God," said he, ^Hooks upon us yit, and it 
rains the same, but the crops ain't what they was, and 
things ain't prospering. Look at the falling down houses 
and the rotting fences. It 'pears to me there's a blight 
upon the yeth."* 

*^ Uncle Ned, what do you think of freedom and 
slavery ? " 

"Well, sir, to talk right straight, I think it's about 
one and t'other. About the only difference I see is that 
there's more freedom and less to eat ; more privilege and 
lesser comfort. We are all slaves anyhow to our backs 
and our bellies. Them's worser masters than ever the 
overseers was. We didn't have that slavery in slavery 
times. And I tell you, young mas., when the nigger git 
sick now, the nigger gwine die. Es, sir, you hear my 
racket, the nigger gwine die. There ain't no old master 
and old mistiss now to send for the doctor and come and 
nuss you. If you send for the doctor now, ten to one he 
won't come, 'cepting he knows you mighty well, for he 
hnow he ain gwine git his money." 

The boat struck the shore and I gave Uncle Ned a sil- 
ver half dollar. He was feeling in his pocket for the 

« Earth. 
% 



26 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

change. I said : " Never mind, Uncle Ned ; you keep 
that." 

**Sarvant, sir ; sarvant, sir," said he with a low bow ; 
and looking straight at me, he added : ^' I believe you, 
sir, is the son of an old timey planter." 

Rising on my horse I bade Uncle Ned adieu, remind- 
ing him to keep a sharp eye on the crane. He had prob- 
ably been the favorite body servant of some rich planter, 
whose pleasant duty was to attend to small things about 
the "great-house," and drive the young ladies to church 
or to school. 



III. 



Sai^ Felipe de Austin". 



"nrnr AIL holy light! offspring of heaven first born I" 
Jtl Such was my exclamation as I emerged from the 
dark forest of the Brazos into the open sunhght of the 
prairie. I might now have turned aside to visit the 
ancient municipality of San Felipe, but it would have 
deflected me a few miles from my course, and I chose to 
stop and rest awhile, as my horse cropped the sweet herb- 
age. The scene before me was one of much beauty. 
Groves of the post or iron-oak stood here and there on the 
prairie, and a narrow belt of timber ran centrally through 
a lovely valley to the west. Beyond the valley the land 
rose in gentle slopes ; pretty farms, half concealed under 
a blue haze, were visible in the distance, and everything 
indicated the approach to a prosperous and happy com- 
munity. 

San Felipe is chiefly worthy of note for what it has 
been. In the old timey days it was the most notable and 
important place in Texas. All roads in the State led to 
San Felipe. It was the seat of Austin's colony, the home 
of the three hundred American adventurers who first put 
foot on Texas soil. A restless and uneasy assemblage they 
were, gathered here and there from every corner of the 
United States. Accustomed to a drifting, unquiet life, 
little cared they for the arts and industries of peace. 
They tilled the field enough to subsist, but built few or 
no homes that were comfortable. They left no more 



28 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

token of civilization than a band of wandering savages 
who have encamped a month on a hunting ground. They 
were chiefly valuable as food for gunpowder ; and to such 
complexion does it come at last when we look back into 
the character of those who have penetrated wild and un- 
known regions and founded empires. Graceless ne'er-do- 
wells at home, nature seems to have formed them ex- 
pressly to sustain the losses and undergo the perils of 
conquest. Under this regime San Felipe de Austin was a 
clump of unsightly cabins, in which the tin cup dis- 
charged its ardent contents by day and the fiddle sounded 
b}^ night. These occupations were more agreeable to 
them than building homes and cultivating housewives and 
children. 

After this, San Felipe became for a while the seat of 
empire of the struggling young republic of Texas, but its 
new honors brought no improvement in architecture, and 
the tin cups rang and the fiddle and dance vexed the ear 
of night the same as ever. Here Houston, Rusk and 
Lamar made their headquarters, harangued the law- 
makers, planned their campaigns and laid the foundations 
of mighty Texas. Their council room was the joist of a 
miserable log-cabin, which was the best that Texas could 
then afford to her statesmen and warriors. They them- 
selves were clad in buckskin, and some of them at least 
enjoyed to no small degree the tin cup and fiddle.* 

As Texas grew stronger and built other more populous 
cities, the restless denizens of San Felipe hastened thither, 
in search of new fields of excitement and amusement, leav- 
ing the old place quite abandoned and desolate. The vil- 

* Anson Jones, then a j'oungman, just from the colleges of Massachusetts, 
afterwards President of Texas, visited San Felipe about this time, to seek 
eniplo3'ment under "^he revolutionary government. He says in his memoirs that 
he found Houston " dead drunk " in the upper story of a dirty shanty, and the 
whole population so rough and boisterous that he was " disgusted," and returned 
to Brazoria, where he had settled. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 29 

luge now has probably a hundred inhabitants, and it is 
said to be a fact that not one of the original settlers or their 
descendants dwells in it or near it. Nothing could be better 
proof of the unquietness of those early adventurers. 

But feeble and sunken as San Felipe is now, she has 
that by which she may grow great. Before the revolution, 
Mexico granted to the municipality four leagues, or nearly 
seventeen thousand acres of land, situated around her, 
fronting on both sides of the Brazos. She holds most of 
these lands yet. They will become of immense value and 
fill her coffers with gold. With such endowment she might 
build splendid colleges, atheneums and museums, gather 
to her the learned and refined, and make herself the most 
marked place in Texas. Genius was at her birth ; it long 
sauntered about her cabins, and if it has abandoned her, 
she may recall it and become the Athens of tlie South-west. 
It is renown worth gaining. Let her try it. The locality is 
rich, beautiful and salubrious, enjoying the Gulf breeze 
that sweeps to her over a hundred miles of prairie, in which 
there is not a single bog or fen. 

Cat Springs. 

I rode up the valley of Mill Creek in Austin county. 
This valley is a wide and lovely one, and scarcely less fer- 
tile than the Brazos Bottom. Beauty continually increased 
around me, until as I approached Cat Springs, I thought 
the country the loveliest I had ever beheld. To the right, 
beyond the valley, the prairie rolled away in sunny slopes 
and graceful swells, growing higher as they faded away in 
the blue distance ; to the left it was as level as the bosom 
of a lake sleeping under a summer eve ; all verdant with 
luxuriant grasses ; dotted with farms and pretty cottages, 
nestling amid evergreen shrubbery ; diversified with Druid 
looking groves of post-oak. Everything bore a look of 
contentment and good cheer — even the lazy cattle and 



30 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

grunting pigs, which would scarcely deign to look at me as 
I passed. Piles of cotton bales were seen in every yard, the 
prosperous farmers no doubt patiently holding back for 
better prices. At a distance Cat Springs looks like a town ; 
but it is not even a village ; it has not even a post-office. 
As I rode into it I found it only a big assemblage of eighty 
acre farms, with their cosy cottages and neat barns and 
stables. The piles of cotton and the rows of stacks of hay 
and grain served to increase the delusion of town or city 
which possessed me at a distance. It has only one store, 
a large and fine one, at which every conceivable variety of 
articles is offered for sale, from a lady's hair-pin to a barrel 
of whiskey. I stop at this store and ask entertainment for 
the night, which is accorded me. Since entering the set- 
tlement I have heard only the German tongue and seen 
German faces. The entire population for miles around, so 
far as I can judge, is German. See how different and 
home-loving these Germans are from the adventurers who 
established San Felipe, and won a place among the nations 
for Texas ! I had travelled only some twenty-two miles 
during the day, partly on account of the discomfort of my 
seat in the saddle, and partly my care to observe the match- 
less country over which I had passed. 

Cat Springs derives its name from a bold, beautiful 
spring of cool, soft water, which bursts up in the com- 
munity and forms the principal water of Mill Creek; ^and 
the spring no doubt derives its name from a colony of 
wild-cats found established in the trees which shade it, 
by its first American discoverers. And I dare say 
those who discovered and thus christened it, were the 
graceless adventurers who encamped, not settled at San 
Felipe, in whose eyes a wild-cat was a highly respectable 
and delightful creature. No German could thus have 
christened it. So charming a place and community de- 
serves a prettier name. Why cannot the Germans re-bap« 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 31 

tize it? Will not the name of their sweet poet do as well— 
Uhland? And the whole place seems to me to breathe of 
the spirit of Uhland.* 

Geological. 

Here I find the first stone on my journey. It crops 
out on the banks of Mill Creek and along the edges of the 
undulating swells of the prairie. All below, the country 
is stoneless. This is a hard, bluish, compact sandstone, 
and its appearance marks a new geological era. I had up 
to this point been travelling over a country newer than the 
Pliocene. A great bog covered the whole extent from 
Houston up to this point, with shallow brackish water. 
Its shores run along the foot of the undulating prairie 
which reaches down to the valley of Mill Creek, and its 
bottom was gradually filled up with the sediment of the 
Brazos and Colorado. Eight here then was probably the 
last stand of the Gulf of Mexico before it retreated to its 
present position. This stone is clearly of Eocene forma- 
tion, and the Miocene and Pliocene either did not exist 
within this area, or have been hidden by the alluvial 
deposits. The stone makes an excellent and handsome 
building material, and as it is the nearest stone to Houston, 
and is in abundance, it will certainly be in great demand 
when it can be transported on railroad, f 

* The American explorers have filled the country, particularly the South- 
west, with ugly and abominable names, frequently for the most beautiful 
natural objects. One of the prettiest streams I ever saw, in southern Missouri, 
is entitled with the name of " Cow-skin," which has a rival in " Cow-house 
Creek, one of the prettiest tributaries of the iRasque. The map of Arkansas is 
sadly defaced with such wretched names. How poor must have been the vocab- 
\ilary of these people ! 

t I am reminded here of a singular geological occurrence. About the same 
distance from Houston, and the same from Galveston, in Brazoria County, there 
is a great deposit of Eocene limestone of superior quality, in a mound covering 
many acres, rising in the midst of a region of the latest geological formation. 
There is enough of this limestone to furnish Houston and Galveston with 
building lime for ages, if it only had railroad transportation. It is the only 



fi« 



32 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 



A Talk with the Merchant. 

" A noble country is this of yours, sir/' said I. 

"We are satisfied with our country/*' said he. "Any 
man who will work, and they all work here, can live well, 
and lay away something for a rainy day. They have their 
crops and their cattle, their pigs and poultry, they never 
need want for a dollar." 

"What do they with their money?" said I wonder- 
in gly. 

" They send some to Germany to comfort the old ones 
at home. Some put it in bank in Houston, and lend it on 
real estate at twelve per cent. There's many a fine house 
in Houston built with our Cat Springs money. Some poke 
it away in old boxes and stockings, and there it will stay 
till their children inherit it, who will be surprised at ihe 
amount of ready cash they find themselves possessed of. 
Well-to-do is the rule here, with no exceptions." 

" I dare say you lose nothing by bad debts in such a 
community." 

"Never," said he. "Most of my neighbors pay as 
they go. With some I keep accounts, and they give me 
checks on Houston when pay-day comes, which serves me 
just as well." 

"What a grand community to grow rich in !" 

He smiled, and asked me to join him in a bottle of beer. 

limestone within my knowledge anywhere near the Texas coast. With this 
abundant limestone so near, and yet so far, Houston and Galveston have until 
lately been getting their lime from Rockland in Maine ! They now get it from 
Austin, one hundred and seventy-eight miles north of Houston. 



IV. 



Of Vaeious Experiences. 

I DID not feel so uncomfortable in my saddle this morn- 
ing, as usage to it had hardened me. The sun shone 
brightly, and the song of the lark cheered me as I rode 
from Oat Springs to the westward. I had taken a step 
upward, and could not only see that I was ascending, but 
felt that the country over which I had passed lay far below 
me. I was entering another clime and other regions. The 
prairie, no longer monotonously level, rolled in undulations, 
and rose here and there in immense knolls or mounds. The 
forests, struggling to obtain foothold and conquer other 
possessions, had thrown their advance couriers forward in 
every direction, which stood in isolated groves, adding 
greatly to the beauty of the scenery. These groves, by 
some singular chance, had established themselves on the 
most conspicuous elevations. They consisted of the iron 
oak, of unusually large size and handsome form. Tliey 
will continue to spread, and after a time will possess all of 
this, save where the axe of the farmer will bar their ad- 
vance. 

Five miles west of Cat Springs the cosy German farms 
disappear, and I again ride in a wilderness, but a wilder- 
ness of beauty still. What though no one lives upon it ? 
• — yet the stately groves adorn the landscape, the graceful 
undulations continue, the rich, green herbage luxuriates, 
romantic vales wind hither and thither, and nature has 
drawn everything with exquisite art. It is all rich — posi- 
2* 



34 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

tively every foot. It needs only the iron horse to make 
this lovely land pour out wealth, like Fortune from her 
cornucopia. The solitary settler passes it by because he 
would be too remote from neighbors and a market, and 
others pass because none have come before them. And 
thus it is left alone in unproductive richness and loveliness. 
How deliciously the breezes sweep over these undulations 
and mounds ! By night or by day they cease not. If I 
were a miller I would want no better locality than this for 
a motive power. On the top of one of these elevations I 
would build my structure, and the winds of God would 
turn the stones. No fear that the stream would diminish 
from drought. If I were a shepherd, in yonder noble grove 
would I erect my shelter, from whose eminence I would 
watch my flocks pasturing in the vales or basking at noon 
on the banks of the sparkling pools below.* 

I had ridden over about twenty miles of such country 
as this, when a beautiful vale allured me to stop, to graze 
my steed and to bait on the cheese and crackers I had 
procured at Cat Springs. I stripped my steed and turned 
him loose, his forefeet manacled with a raw-hide *^ hobble," 
and bade him eat his fill. I then proceeded to consume 
the cheese and crackers, after which I took a draught from 
the bottle which the kindly merchant had filled for me 
to take along to bear me company on the way. It was 
exceedingly soft and innocent to the taste, reminded me 
as I drank it of the discourse of a good, wise old man, who 
would entertain you and fill you with wisdom, but would 
not harm you for the world. After this I was seized with 
a desire for slumber, increased by the contemplation of 
the profound quietude of the vale. Spreading my saddle- 
blanket beneath me on the feathery grass, I soon became 
unconscious of mv own existence and that of the world 

ft/ 

* These sparkling pools might disappear in a long, dry summer, but one 
Artesian well, which might easily be obtained here, would furnish a v,rhole 
community w th abundance of living water 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 35 

besides. Hours passed in this condition, until I was par- 
tially awaked by a sense of uncomfortable chilliness. 
Deeming that I was in my bed in Houston, I struggled to 
gather the covering about me, and had covered perhaps a 
a foot or part of my flank with my saddle-blanket, when I 
again passed into obliviousness. I had not, I suppose, 
remained so long, however, before the chilliness again 
disturbed me, increased to such a degree that I imagined 
that I was gradually being submerged into a bath of ice- 
water. I arose, and was startled to see the shades of night 
settling around me. What was worse, my horse had dis- 
appeared. I stared eagerly aronnd, but he was no where 
in sight. Said I to myself : " Has some heartless tramp 
stolen upon me in my slumber, and set me afoot to starve 
in this wild, untenanted region ? " A sense of desolation 
seized me, the most overwhelming I had ever experienced. 
I had not long to look, fortunately, when my horrors 
were dispelled by finding my horse grazing in an umbi'a- 
geous nook concealed from the jooint where I had slept. 
He looked at me as if he was perfectly innocent of the 
distress he had caused me, and was sorry for it. He was 
soon saddled, and I was again on my way. I took another 
draught from the bottle to dispel the chilliness that still 
possessed me. It was extremely soft and mellifluous to the 
taste, but I observed in a moment that it sent the warm 
blood coursing through my veins to a surprising degree for 
the small quantity I had taken. It was a veritable snake 
concealed under a nosegay of the charmingest and most 
sweetly scented flowers. I looked at the bottle and saw 
that the merchant had written on it *' 1853." It was a 
symbol more cabalistic to me than S. T — 1860 — X. 

A ISTight's Experience. 

Just as darkness fell, I came to a forest which seemed 
perched on higher ground than any I had yet found. As 



36 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

I stood on the edge of the forest and looked back in the 
darkness, the prairie seemed a great sea dotted with islands 
with castles, rolling below me. The waving grasses con- 
cealed and then disclosed the rising stars on the horizon, 
as the waves do on the sea. It lacked only the roar of 
the billows to complete the delusion. Penetrating the for- 
est, all was the blackness of darkness, save where the open- 
ing of the road admitted the starlight. My horse labored 
along over a surface which seemed a foot deep in fine, 
loose sand, a remarkable and sudden change from the 
black, tenacious soil of the prairie. His laboring through 
this material, sinking beneath his feet, became painful to 
me to witness, and I listened eagerly for the baying of 
some honest watch-dog and looked for a glimmering light 
through the forest, indicating some human residence. 
But the forest only became denser and blacker, the road 
heavier, and the silence was unbroken save by the sighing 
wind and the hooting owl. Fully two hours this toilsome 
march continued, when the road seemed to grow so ob- 
scure that I thought I might have strayed away upon 
some interminable trail made by a woodman in selecting 
and hauling timber. Fearing to be lost in sucli a wilder- 
ness, and having compassion for my horse, I resolved to 
encamp in the woods, though illy provided for such occa- 
sion. I rode away from the path, and finding a small 
open space on which I might stake my horse, I dismounted 
and took off his accoutrements. Leaving him with forty 
feet of rope, I spread my saddle-blanket under a branching 
iron-oak to shelter me from the night dew. With my 
saddle for a pillow, and no other covering but my over- 
coat, I endeavored to address myself to slumber. 

I had dozed I cannot tell how long, with no great de- 
gree of discomfort, when I was disturbed by a few long, 
lonesome howls in the depth of the forest. These were 
soon answered bv other lonesome howls in other directions. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 37 

I knew from the peculiarly doleful and heart-rending 
strains that these were wolves, and their sonorousness dis- 
tinctly declared that they were of the bigger sort. After 
a while the howls were again heard in every direction, 
growing nearer and nearer, until I became aware that I 
was surrounded by a cordon of ravenous beasts. At last 
they all seemed to gather together, joining in a most 
tumultuous consultation, in which they expressed them- 
selves by a mingled howling, yelping and piteous crying. 
When this ceased, I heard a rushing noise in the rustling 
leaves, and my horse suddenly starting, dashed away with 
full force, snapping the rope as if it were a mere thread. 
Away he plunged through the forest with the speed of the 
winds, sending forth a rapid sound from under his heels. 
The woods then seemed alive with wolves, and they snuffed 
the air all around me. 

A sense of intense desolation would doubtless have 
seized me here, but the higher instinct of self-preservation 
was now pressing me. It occurred to me that these wolves 
might be in a famished condition, and having failed to get 
my horse, might not scruple to make a supper of myself, 
if the temptation were allowed to stand in their way. Such 
things surely have they done before. What was I to do — 
a lone stranger in a deep forest without other weapon than 
a pocket-knife and a solitary black bottle for a club? 
While pondering this question, the wolves put up a most 
piteous clamor, as if intending to advise me that they were 
very hungry, and asking me to pardon the deed they were 
about to do. I looked up the tree under which I had 
dozed. A large limb stood temptingly near my head. I 
reached up and grasped it by both hands, and with a bound 
sprang into the tree. Looking higher I perceived a com- 
fortable fork about ten feet above, and climbing from 
branch to branch, I was soon ensconced within it. I left 
below a bit of cheese and crackers and a bottle of whiskey 



38 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 

of the harvest of 1853, and I kindly said to the wolves: 
'^ Come, poor creatures, and feast!" Would I not have 
been a heartless man to have said less? 

They howled and moaned around me for some time, but 
I could not persuade them to come and partake of my 
charity. I spoke to them gently and pointed to the cheese 
and whiskey below, but they responded only with a low 
moan, as if they meant to say: " Not your cheese and whis- 
key, but you ! " One fellow amused me exceedingly. He 
sat on his haunches about twenty feet from my tree, in- 
tently gazing, now upon the cheese and whiskey, and nojv 
casting a long, lingering look upon me. Now and then he 
would lift his head in the air, moving it round and round, 
fling his jaws wide open, and looking straight at me, pour 
forth a moan the most disconsolate I ever heard in my life. 
I thought he was trying to sing the old melody: 

" Thou art so near and yet so f ar 1 " 

As they went away one by one, I fell to thinking of 
the utter ludicrousness of my position; and I felt rather 
ashamed of myself for a moment when I reflected that had 
I desyended from the tree and said "boo!" to the wolves, 
they would probably have run away faster than my horse 
did from them, and that they had stopped merely to satisfy 
their curiosity as to what sort of creature they had treed. 
But I reassured myself with the reflection that it is no 
part of manhood or courage to expose one's self to needless 
danger; it is rather the part of fool-hardiness. It is the 
duty of true courage to preserve itself for danger which 
cannot be avoided, and it cannot be denied that, to all ap- 
pearance, I was safer in that tree than out of it. I de- 
scended, and knowing that it was utterly useless to attempt 
to follow my horse until morning, soon fell into a pro- 
found sleep. 

When I awaked, the first rays of the rising sun were 
glimmering on the tops of the trees, and I felt none the 



TWO THOUS.\N"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 39 

worse for my couch in the forest. My first care was my 
horse. Throwing the bridle over my shoulders and putting 
the other accoutrements over the limb of a tree, I walked 
away to hunt him. About a hundred yards from my en- 
campment, a narrow, treeless vale or hollow opened in the 
forest, leading eastward. The grass was very rich in it, 
and I had little doubt that I would soon see my horse 
cropping its luxuriance. I was not disappointed, for pres- 
ently I w^as delighted to behold him about a half mile off, 
grazing very quietly. When within fifty yards of him, I 
gathered a tempting handful of grass,. and holding it out 
to him as I approached, said: "Come, old fellow; come, 
good fellow ! " He waited until I was ten feet from him, 
when he tossed his head in the air, kicked up his heels 
and ran a quarter of a mile, and resumed his grazing. I 
followed. This time I gathered what I considered the 
most tempting stock of grass in the prairie, and again 
endeavored to coax him. He looked at me disdainfully, 
as if he meant to say: " Do you see anything green in my 
eye ? Do you think I am such a fool as not to know that 
I can pluck, with my lips and teeth, as good grass on this 
prairie as you can pluck with your hands ? " And away 
he went, stopping about three hundred yards off. 

A Strange Apparition. 

I was greatly perplexed and knew not what to do. 1 
was considering the position, all involved in distress, when 
I happened to look to my right, and beheld, standing on 
the edge of the timber, motionless as a statue and gazing 
intently upon me, a strange object. I went toward it, and 
it had the form of a man. This man, or likeness of a 
man, was about four and a half feet high, broad shoulders, 
bow-legged. A heavy black beard nearly covered his face, 
and half concealed a great mouth which appeared six 
inches in width. There was a singular leer in his little 



4:0 TWO THOUSAiq'D MILES II?" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

grey eyes, which expressed I could not tell whether malice^ 
roguish ness, or idiocy. Of brow, he seemed to have none 
whatever. He wore buckskin pants, buckskin jacket, 
moccasins of buckskin on his feet ; and this interesting 
assemblage was crowned with a coon-skin cap, the tail of 
the coon falling full length down his back. A heavy 
dragoon pistol was buckled round his waist, and the same 
belt held a knife which seemed to have been fashioned 
from a slab of iron. At his side hung a buckskin sack, fas- 
tened to his neck by a buckskin thong. His pants and 
jacket were begrimed and greasy, looking as if the sin- 
gular creature who wore them had long dwelt in a smoke- 
house, among bacon and fat-casks. 

He remained motionless, and did not even deign 
a wink of the eye until I addressed him. I said : 
'"Will you be so kind, sir, as to help me catch my 
horse ? " 

^^Oh yes, oh yes," said he. ^^ And I think you need 
help. I have seen you trying to catch him a long time." 
he added in a coarse, gruff voice, which seemed better 
suited to the lungs of a giant than a dwarf. 

*^ Do you think, sir, you can catch him ?" 

'' Oh yes, oh yes. Come along and see how quickly I 
will do it." 

He led the way and I walked by his side, wondering 
what he would do. When within fifty yards of my horse 
he asked me to stand still, while he drew from his sack 
an ear of corn, which advancing he held out to him, say- 
ing, *' cubby ! cubby ! " Tlie horse raised his head, looked 
at him a moment, and then walked straight up to him. 
He seized him, and the next moment I had my bridle 
upon him. I offered the dwarf reward, but he scornfully 
refused it, saying he was *'not so hard up as to come down 
to that sort o' meanness yet." 

"Well sir," said I, "with mv saddle I left some verv 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 41 

fine spirits. May I not ask the honor of a morning dram 
with you ? " 

•*0h yes, oh yes!" And his eyes sparkled. I rode 
on the horse's bare back and the dwarf walked by my side. 
I kept my eye upon him, because in truth I was a little 
suspicious of this unaccountable fellow. Reaching my en- 
campment I handed him the bottle and a cup, saying, 
^* drink largely." He obeyed the injunction; he took a 
deep potation, raising his head and smiling at the woods 
as he did so. "Look here, stranger," said he, "this is 
liquor what's liquor. It cheers me up all the way down." 
And he smacked his lips with joy. Knowing its latent 
power I touched it with caution. 

It made him voluble and hospitable. Hitherto as re- 
served and unsocial as an owl, he now glowed with viva- 
city. Never did iceberg melt half so rapidly under a trop- 
ical sun. "I know you are hungry," said he. "Come 
with me to my den and have a good breakfast with me I " 

I did not like that word "den." It sounded suspi- 
ciously. Was I in fact in company with a Eobin Hood 
of the forest, or some skulking criminal who had hidden 
in these deep recesses ? I looked at him more guardedly 
than ever. How did I know that he might not be seeking 
some favorable opportunity to pierce me with a bullet 
from that heavy pistol ? I thanked him, and declined his 
invitation politely, on the ground that it would probably 
detain me too long from my journey, and asked him to 
join me in another smile. " With all my heart, sir ; with 
all my heart ;" and another heavy draught gurgled down 
his throat. Then, resting against a tree with both hands 
in his pockets, he said : " Well, stranger, you don't know 
what to think of me nohows. Don't you think I am 
Governor Dicky Coke ? Ah, Dickey Coke — he is the 
greatest man in the world. Hurrah for Dicky Coke ! 
When he gits into the Senate, though, w^on't he make 



42 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

them fellows stand aroim' ? Well, stranger, I am a stock- 
raiser by profession — that is, I flourishes by the industry 
of my SOWS and boars ; that is, I, sir, am a pig-raiser. I 
can blow my horn- and all these woods will sound with the 
grunting of my boars and sows and shoats, and the squeal- 
ing of my pigs, sir. Sir, I am a man of income. Greatest 
country in the world for boars and sows. These acorns 
feeds them. I give 'em just corn enough to gin tie 'em, and 
Avhen killing time comes, just enough to harden their fat. 
If you would be a man of income, stranger, stop here and 
raise hogs." 

" I thank thee,^ said I, ^^ for the advice, and it is not 
impossible I may one day be a pig-raiser, and thy neighbor 
too. But how about the wolves ? " 

^* Ah, the wolves won't phase your stock at all. You 
see when the wolves comes, the hogs form in a ring with 
the pigs in the middle. No wolves darsn't charge that 
ring ; never, sir ; no wolves darsn't charge that ring. They 
catch your calves, but never your pigs. Be a pig-raiser, 
stranger, be a pig-raiser ! " 

"The sun is mounting high in the heavens, and it is 
time for another smile. Join me, sir ; join me in another !" 

" To be sure, sir ; to be sure," said he. 

I poured the cup for him nearly full. He drank it and 
slid downward against the tree, and sat at its foot leaning 
against the trunk. "Grlory !" said he. "Stranger, why 
don't you send a bottle of this to Governor Coke ? " 

I invited him to take another. He accepted. I gave 
him the last drop in the bottle. He drank it and fell over 
on his side ; then stretched himself out on his back full 
length, and passed away into profound slumber. I placed 
his coon-skin cap over his eyes, the Cat Springs bottle by 
his side, and left him alone in his glory. I mounted my 
horse and silently stole away. How long he slept I wot 
not. 



V. 

Lagrange. The Colorado. 

AS I rode on, the forest continued, but the soil grew 
rich : a sandy loam, the delight of the agriculturist, 
black with the decayed leaves and trunks of the forest. 
The wild grape, of several varieties, grew rampant on this 
mellow soil, awaiting only the hands of the skilled vintager 
to make the country flow with purple wine.* 

Noble mulberry trees, the largest I ever saw, were scat- 
tered here and there through the forest, and became more 
numerous as I rode along. These were free gifts from 
the hands of nature, and their noble stature and luxuriance 
of bough indicate unerringly to these people that they may 
weave as rich a silk as ever sparkled on a Chinese mandarin. 
The oaks seemed literally to droop under their crop of 
acorns, and the pigs gi-unted extreme satisfaction as they 
stirred the fallen leaves with their noses. I thought of my 
prostrate friend the pig-raiser, and could not wonder at his 

* One of the most abundant of the wild grapes of Texas is the Mustang or 
Cut-Throat, as the Texans sometimes call it. It is a great bearer, hardy as a 
Polar bear, is universal througTiout the State, and is confined solelj' to Texas, 
so far as I know. It derives the name Cut-Throat from the acrid juice lying be- 
tween the skin and the pulp— so acrid that it cannot be eaten with much comfort 
unless the skin is slipped off before the pulp is put in the mouth. I do not doubt 
that the finest grapes may be raised on this hardy native vine ; and this has been 
proved by a gentleman of Waco, who has succeeded in producing probably the 
handsomest grape in cultivation by impregnating its blossom with the White 
Hungarian. The grape thus produced has the sweetness of the Hungarian with 
the game flavor of the Texan. I have little doubt that from this cross will come 
one of the best sparkling wine grapes of the world — a wine as lively as champagne, 
but with more heft and strength of body. Of the juice of the Mustang without 
hybridizati »n. a very fair claret is made. 



44 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

eulogy of the pig-bnsiness, where nature showers tender- 
loins and rich sausages. I was tempted to gatlier and eat 
a handful of these acorns, and they were nearly as sweet as 
chestnuts. Of all oaks of the forest perhaps the post or 
iron-oak yields the richest and most abundant nuts. 

An hour's ride suddenly disclosed to me, hidden in a 
nook formed by surrounding forest and wooded hills, nearly 
concealed under a wealth of mulberry and evergreens, the 
pretty little town of Lagrange, which struck me at once as 
a seat of rural opulence. And sooth, so it is. It does not 
contain, I judge, more than fifteen hundred people, and 
there are no imposing structures, but there is that about it 
which declares at once the true gentleman : enough to be 
at ease, pleasing engagement and aspirations, a happy con- 
science and a beaming future. We occasionally meet a 
man, who though a stranger to us, bears this history writ- 
ten all over him ; and so it is with this village that rests in 
the nook, where you may hear in the busiest part of the day 
.the blue Colorado murmuring over its pebbly bottom. 
Churches and numerous schools bespeak Christian civiliza- 
tion ; the pretty, neatly dressed girls, who almost forbear 
to steal a glance at you as you pass, bespeak refinement, 
and all that is around bespeaks easy well-to-do. 

It is the capital of Fayette County, one of the richest 
and most populous regions of Texas. Last year this 
county produced forty-five thousand bales of cotton, nearly 
all of which was bought and sold again by the merchants 
of Lagrange. This turned loose about two hundred and 
seventy-five thousand dollars of gold on her streets. Now 
add to this the hides, wool, grain, and bacon and lard, 
yielding another sum as large, annually increasing, and it 
is not strange that an air of opulence should rest upon this 
village in the nook. I should mention, too, beer, for they 
brew here as delightful lager as ever warmed the portly 
Btomach of Gambrinus. The people seem to be about half 



TAVO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 46 

American and half German, and I judge that they are made 
up of the best that is German and the best that is Ameri- 
can. I observe that there is a great preponderance of 
blonde beauties, by which I judge that the German and 
the American stream are gradually fading away into each 
other and becoming inextricably blended. It is a meeting 
and mingling at last of two streams that have separated 
and flowed away from the same parent source, each to be 
reinvigorated probably by the remingling. 

And yet this community, so rich and populous, has no 
other means of transferring its products to market but the 
wagon and team. So anxious are they for a railroad that 
they say: '^ Build the Texas Western to Cat Springs or 
Belleville, and we will grade and tie thence to Lagrange. 
We will not stop by the wayside to build towns and specu- 
late in lots. We will do the work as quickly as money and 
muscle can do it." When they get this road this commu- 
nity and the region around will become to Houston and 
Galveston what Sicily was to Rome — its granary and lar- 
der. Rich as it is now, the mine but barely touched, it 
will become a hundred-fold richer. It is a good region to 
migrate to.* 

My horse and myself having breakfasted on the viands 
that were best for us both, and having enjoyed two 
full hours of rest, I rode away, my face still to the west- 
ward : in all respects the same as when I rode away yester- 
day morning, save that I was minus the Cat Springs bottle. 
That bottle, innocent as it was, had brought me the long 
slumber on the prairie, the night melodious with wolves, 
the perplexing pursuit of my horse, the pig-raiser prostrate 
under the iron-oak ; and as Lagrange was a superior place, 
I thought I had better not substitute it with a Lagrange 

* When Houston and Galveston can sell bacon and lard nearly as cheap as 
St Loals, how will it affect South American and West Indian trade ? 



46 TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

bottle, lest that bottle should prove more fantastic, and 
call lip more wonders than Aladdin's Lamp. 

I stood upon the bank of the Colorado, and it seemed 
a glorious poem moving before me ; so beautiful was it in 
itself and so beautiful in the reminiscences it recalled. If 
one when he was a beardless boy, has ever loved a bright little 
fairy who played on the banks of the Colorado, or any other 
surpassingly lovely stream, and spoke the first whisper of 
love amid the murmur of its waters, he can partly compre- 
hend my feelings as I stood and contemplated. The same 
sparkling water — a collection it seemed of all the brightest 
drops of tlie dews of Heaven — laughed and sang over cas- 
cades here, and eddied in deep blue pools there ; the same 
bubbles danced along, and every ripple seemed to give me 
a glimpse of her image. As we grow older we can smile 
as we choose at the little follies of the first dawn of love, 
but it is the one spot of our lives that is the sweetest of 
all, and when we think of it our thoughts involuntarily 
become a poesy and a music. If this is not Heaven or a 
taste of it, I cannot judge what is. I believe there is but 
one love, and that is first love : that which comes after- 
ward is the rose when its perfume is gone, and when its 
youth is withered. Better let your love go with the per- 
fume of the rose. When I stepped upon the ferry boat I 
stooped and kissed the sparkling Colorado ; for it seemed 
the very drop which she had just kissed before me, or at 
least had kissed in the old timey days.* 

This river is called the twin-brother of the Brazos, but 
there is no likeness whatever between them. Indeed it is 
remarkable that there should be such variance in two rivers 
which for six hundred miles flow almost along-side of 
each otlier. The Brazos creeps along silently, dark and 
forbidding, while the Colorado cheers you with a merry 

* And still I did not marry her. The last time I saw her she had grown large 
and fat, and was the mother of three bouncing boys, of which I was not the father. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 47 

voice and with waters as bright as any that sparkle under 
the heavens ; clear as the light of a diamond where it leaps 
over cascades or glances down rapids, and of the deep blue 
of the skies where they are most ethereal, when it glides 
quietly through pools. The Brazos makes us think of 
toads spitting vapors from their mouths, while Pleasure 
and Youthful Jollity seem to liover incessantly over the 
Colorado. 

To one who looks upon these beautiful waters, the 
name "red-colored," seems a misnomer, and a wickedness ; 
but a few moments of observation will teach us how care- 
ful and apt were the old Spaniards in their selection of 
names for natural objects. Vie behold its wide valleys and 
all its detritus of a rich chocolate-brown, strongly inclin- 
ing to red ; and this peculiarity marks the river from 
its source to its mouth. During periods of swells the 
river is always Inflamed, and when these come from its 
main channel, far above, he has put on his war-paint in- 
deed. I am not sure from what pecuUar sediment this 
color is derived. I have traced the river far above the 
mouth of the Concho, and saw nothing from which it may 
have been derived. Above that river it is inflamed more 
than ever, showing that its war-paint is gathered from the 
vast uninhabited region beyond, from a soil derived proba- 
bly from the decomposition of pprphyritio rocks. Be it 
what it may, the deposit of red material is enormous, for 
it has colored the earth of the valley along jts whole course 
to unknown depths.* 

And a good fertilizer is this niysjterious sediment, 
which it almost annually spreads oyer the valley, renewing 
the richness which the crops have extracted. The valley 
is not regarded as quite so rich as the Brazos Bottoms, 

* The red Permian, rich in copper and ochres, ig lapgply developed above the 
mouth of the Concho, and the Colorado has doubtless obtained its coloring 
matter from these deposits mostly. 



48 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 

but it is still rich enough, in all conscience. The same 
crops that flourish on the Brazos flourish quite as well 
here, and for grains it is better, producing more weight 
and substance to the bushel. The valleys are not so wide, 
or so heavily timbered, but the wood is more compact and 
durable, and there is not a purer and healthier clime in 
the world. The river along its whole course is noted for 
its beautiful and often exquisite scenery. Perhaps no 
river can furnish more charming pictures for the pencil of 
the artist.* 

Crossing the river and clearing the forests of the val- 
ley, mountains, so-called, rock-ribbed and venerable, ap- 
pear before me. They are by far the tallest elevations yet 
seen on my journey, and seem to mark the approach of a 
new geological era. They are flanked with sandstone at 
their bases, excellent for building, and higher up with 
limestone, good for quicklime. From base to pinnacle 
they are heavily covered with sombre forests of cedar, fur- 
nishing the neighboring farms with everlasting fencing 
material. This durable timber abounds in this region, 
frequently spreading over the lowlands in forests, and of 
great size. When accessible to railroads it will be of great 
value for ties. 

* One of the most remarkable deposits of marble iu the world occurs on this 
river, at what is known as the Marble Falls, about forty miles above Austin. 
The river for several miles has cut its way through a bed of marble of several 
varieties, including black, and all of the finest quality. The whole region 
round about abounds with marble, so accessible that some of the farmers have 
built their fences of it, and the chimneys of the cabins are of the same magnificent 
material ! The locality is remarkable for its picturesque beauty, and the river 
here has an immense wafpt-power, sufficient to turn all the machinery in Texas, 
and more. 



VI. 



The Devil akd Strap Buckker. 

A MILE above the ferry, I entered a charming valley 
leading from the west. It was a succession of farms 
after farm. The song of the plowman was merry in the 
air, and there was an odor of the newly-turned soil, which 
showed just a tint of the coloring matter of the Colorado, 
proving that the mighty river had invaded the valley with 
its back-water. Gentle slopes and eminences and detached 
groves of oak looked upon this pleasant valley from either 
side. Through the middle of it flowed a small stream 
known as Buckner's Creek. The invariable cotton bale 
was piled in every yard, awaiting the pleasure of the 
farmer to be converted into gold. 

I had ridden a few miles up this attractive valley when 
a young horseman cantered wp by my side, travelling the 
same direction with myself. He was dressed in faultless 
neatness, but there was something in his Byron collar and 
the little blue ribbon about his neck, as well as his large, 
bright, black eyes, which seemed to say that the sunny 
hill-sides, the shady forests, the murmuring river and the 
blue distances were to him a delight and love. A soft felt 
hat sat jauntily on his head, but did not conceal his broad, 
pale brow. I said involuntarily as he checked his pranc- 
ing steed beside me and bowed politely : '^ A young gen- 
tleman and a scholar ! " His steed, handsomely capari- 
soned, glossy with kind handling and abundant provender, 
gay with exuberant spirit, seemed meet companion for his 
rider, and proud of the bui-den he bore. 
8 



50 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

After an interchange of courtesies and some pleasant 
conversation, I asked why the sparkling brook was called 
Buckner's Creek, and why it had not been named for 
some water-nymph, who, in the mythological days, must 
have chosen it for her haunt ; or for some Indian prin- 
cess with a musical name who had lived and loved on its 
banks ? 

" Ah," said he, turning upon me with his beaming 
eyes, which grew larger and brighter, '' and thereby hangs 
a tale — a tale of the olden time. And as I perceive that 
you are one who loves knowledge and light, whose delight 
is to know, I will tell it to you if you will have the patience 
to hear me." 

I thanked him and begged him to proceed. 

You must know then, continued he, that this vale in 
which you are riding, is one that has witnessed strange 
company and remarkable events. There is not one foot 
of this soil beneath your feet, which, had it a tongue to 
speak, could not a tale unfold that would harrow up your 
young heart. Even the zephyrs, as I fancy, occasionally 
lisp it with their airy tongues. In the olden time there 
came to Texas with Austin, who, you are aware, brought 
"the first three hundred" Americans who founded this 
great commonwealth, a youth whose name was Strap Buck- 
ner. Where he was born, whence his lineage, or why he 
bore the name of Strap the records do not tell : whether he 
was so christened at the font, or because he was a stalwart, 
strapping youth. Certain it is, he was of giant stature, 
and of the strength of ten lions, and he used it as ten lions. 
His hair was of the redness of flame, as robust as the mane 
of a charger, and his face it was freckled. He was of a 
kindly nature, as most men of giant strength are, but he 
had a pride in his strength which grew ungovernable. 
With no provocation whatever, he knocked men down with 
the kindest intentions and no purpose to harm them. He 



TAVO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 51 

would enter a circle of gentlemen with a smiling visage, 
and knock them all down ; and when any received bruised 
or broken limbs, he nursed them with more than the ten- 
derness of a mother, and with a degree of enthusiasm as if 
his whole heart was bent on restoring them to health as 
soon as practicable, in order that he might enjoy the pleas- 
ure of knocking them down again. Indeed, he nursed- 
them with the enthusiasm of a true genius which fires itself 
onward to the fulfillment of some great aspiration ; and 
his genius was to knock men down. He knocked down 
Austin's whole colony at least three times over, including 
the great and good Austin himself. 

He could plant a blow with his fist so strongly that it 
was merry pastime with him to knock a yearling bull stark 
dead ; and even the frontlet of a full grown aniaial could 
not withstand him. In those days a huge black bull 
appeared mysteriously in Austin's colony, who by his fero- 
city became a terror to the settlement, and was known by 
the dread name of Noche. Strap challenged this bull to 
single combat, and invited the colony to witness the en- 
counter. When the day came the entire colony looked 
from their doors and windows, being afraid to go out ; 
every one, probably, praying that both Strap and the bull 
would be slain. He threw a red blanket over his shoulder, 
and walked on the prairie with the air of a hero who goes 
forth to meet a mighty foeman. He bore no weapon what- 
ever. When the bull perceived him, he tossed his tail 
aloft and switched it hither and thither, pawed the earth, 
and emitted a roar of thunder. Strap imitated him, and 
jDawed and roared also ; which perceiving, the bull came 
toward him like a thunderbolt clothed in tempest and ter- 
ror. Strap received him with a blow on his frontlet from 
his bare fist, wliich sent him staggering back upon his 
haunches, and the blood flowed from his smoking nostrils. 
Eecovering from his surprise, Noche, to the astonishment 



52 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

of all, turned tail and fled away, bellowing. He was never 
more seen in those parts. 

Strap's fame greatly arose, insomuch that men looked 
upon him in awe, and maidens and strong women pined 
in secret admiration. He became a great hunter, using 
no other weapon but his fist and an iron pestle or mace, 
which he threw with the accuracy of rifle aim when the 
prey refused him encounter in close quarters. The wild- 
cat and the bear emigrated, and the buffalo bade a lasting 
farewell to the lowlands. 

About this time also Strap became addicted to strong 
drink and grew boisterous, to such a degree that people 
shunned him in spite of his kindly nature. No man would 
meet him alone ; but when he was seen approaching, men 
would shut themselves up in their houses, or collect in 
knots, all with guns and pistols cocked. Strap now rea- 
soned within himself and determined he would seek other 
fields of glory. Said he to himself reflectively: ^' It is ever 
thus. When a man of genius appears in the world he 
may be recognized by this infallible sign : That all the 
dunces are immediately in confederacy against him." So, 
early on a bright spring morning he arose, "^and throwing 
his bundle of raiment over his left shoulder, and bearing 
his iron pestle in his right hand, he turned his back upon 
the unappreciative community. The people stood at their 
doors and windows — the men and the women, the boys and 
the girls — and watched him departing, and with one voice 
exclaimed: '*Fare thee well. Strap Buckner, and joy go 
with thee and with thy house ! " Strap turned, and in the 
kindness of his heart exclaimed: "Fare thee well, San 
Felipe ! Sweet be thy cradled slumbers ! I go to meet 
Noche, who has sent me a challenge through the air. 
Sleep in security, San Felipe ; for Strap Buckner watches 
over thy slumbers." And in the kindness of his heart he 
brushed a tear from his eye, and strode rapidly away. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 53 

He travelled west over the great plains. It would be 
long to tell you his many strange adventures by the way, 
but I may do so should we meet again. Metliinks I see 
two soft blue eyes over my shoulder, and hear a sweet 
whisper bidding me hasten to the bower, and I must cut 
the story short ; besides, the point where we must separate 
approaches. After days of wonders Strap reached the site 
where Lagrange now is, and to his surprise found a soli- 
tarv tradinof-house, where Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall 
exchanged beads and liquor with the Indians for furs and 
skins, and for horses they might steal. He liked the coun- 
try greatly, and whiskey being accessible, he determined 
to abide in these quarters. On the first day of his arrival, 
he knocked down both Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall, 
but he did it so handsomely and with such an air of un- 
speakable kindness, that they could conceive no offence. 
Before a week had elapsed he had knocked down every 
Indian brave who dwelt within ten miles round; and finally 
he knocked down the great king himself, Tuleahcahoma, 
in the presence of the queen, Muchalatota, and the fair 
princess, Tulipita. He gained such renown among the 
Indians that they called him Kokulblothetopoff ; that is 
to say; the Red Son of Blue Thunder. The great king 
held him in such reverence that he presented him with a 
grey horse with a bob-tail, which though ugly and lank to 
look at, was famed as the swiftest horse known to all the 
Indians ; and he offered him the fair Princess Tulipita in 
marriage. The Princess he rejected, because he prized his 
strength above all things, and forbore to waste any of it 
for woman, though a fair princess. Tulipita sobbed in 
silence, and let concealment, like the worm in the bud, 
feed on her copper cheeks. 

Now this great king and his powerful tribe dwelt in 
this fair valley in which you ride. Strap saw it, and he 
loved the beautiful land. He resolved to settle within it. 



54 TWO THOUSAND MILES IM TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

persuaded thereto partly no doubt, by the sight of the 
swarming population whom he might pound, and by ob- 
serving that should he become thirsty, his swift grey nag 
would quickly bear him where he might imbibe his fill. 
He chose yon lovely site, and there built his residence of 
cedar posts. He procured a jug of whiskey and sat up 
housekeeping, an object of great reverence to his neigh- 
bors. Daily he went forth and knocked down many 
Indians with great grace. At last they conceived that 
they did not like this, and they determined to abandon 
the vale. On a dark night they silently stole away, and 
next morning Strap found himself desolate and alone. 
When he beheld the deserted valley, but yesterday teem- 
ing with braves and fair maidens, he wept in the kindness 
of his heart. '^ Other friends," said he, ''have left me 
before. Such is the common penalty of greatness. The 
great mountains stand in isolation ; their heads are clothed 
in clouds and thunder ; their brows are encircled with 
glittering corouets of ice. They never shake hands, and 
know no sweet familiarities. They live in cold, solitary 
grandeur. Thus whom the gods make great they make 
miserable, in that their greatness lifts them into solitude. 
Men and women shun me for my greatness, and the bolts 
of heaven most frequently pierce the sides of the greatest 
mountains. It is their greatness that invites the shafts." 
And he wept salt tears in the fullness of his great heart. 

Two days he pondered on his greatness and his misery, 
and the struggle between his genius and his better spirit 
was terrible. You know, sir, that of all the forces that 
exist, genius is the most subtle, the most unquiet and the 
most powerful. He who hath it, hath a heaving ocean or a 
volcano in his breast. It is nursed and strengthened by 
opposition, as the eagle scorns the mountain tops which 
have said to him : " Hither shalt thou soar, but no higher ! " 
Pinching penury and gaunt sickness cannot prevail against 



TWO THOUSAIN^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 55 

it ; nay, not even a mother-in-law hath force to quench it. 
It is like unto measles and small-pox, for when once im- 
planted in a man, it will break forth and have its course. 
He that hath a genius must needs let it work ; else it will 
prove his ruin. You can conceive then, sir, how terrible 
was the struggle between Strap and his genius ; which 
Avas to knock men down. His bosom heaved, and his 
eyes they rolled. His cabin shook in the agony of the 
conflict, as Strap or his genius got the upper hand. " Ah," 
thundered his genius, 'Mvho would not prefer greatness in 
misery to happiness in littleness ? Who will say that the 
little tomtit that catches flies under the leaves of the 
honeysuckle, is not happier than the proud eagle that 
bathes his wings in lightning and converses with the thun- 
der ? And yet, what eagle would exchange with the poor 
tomtit ? Who so poor of spirit ? The wretchedness that 
greatness brings is its badge of honor and the glorious 
plume of superiority, in which the great spirit should 
rejoice. Wear thy plumes and be proud of them 1 Do 
the polar storms that beat upon the icebergs melt them ? 
No! They enlarge them; they strengthen them; and 
by them they are more appallingly beautiful under the 
dancing aurora. The great iceberg decays under the 
stupid airs of the tropics, that bear butterflies and bugs. 
Shame upon your coward thought I" 

Strap's countenance grew strangely flushed, and a dark 
light gleamed in his impatient eyes. It was liis genius 
startled and indignant. He arose with a proud air, ad- 
miringly gazed upon his enormous fists, and groaned 
deeply for the presence of some one whom he might 
knock down. A sweet gentleness stole into and beamed 
from his eyes as he placed himself in the attitude of one 
who would strike. His genius possessed him. 

And now his better spirit spoke in a soft voice : " Ah, 
Strap, hast thou not glory enough ? Is not thy brow al- 



56 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

ready rich with laurels ? Hast thou not knocked down 
many times nearly every man in Texas — even the great 
Austin and the mighty king, Tuleahcahoma ? Shall the 
great man never see rest ? It is the voice of the betrayer 
that would lure you away from the repose you have nobly 
won. Under thine own vine and fig tree live with gentle 
Peace, and she shall bathe thy brow with kisses. Men 
shall honor thee as they pass, and maidens shall wreathe 
garlands and sing songs for thee. Heed not the voice of 
the betrayer. Thou hast glory enough. Seek gentle 
Peace, who shall encircle her pleasant arms about thee 
and bathe thy brow with kisses." 

Strap fell back on his back and said imploringly : 
''Come, gentle Peace; encircle thy pleasant arms about 
me and bathe my brow with kisses. My laurels are suffi- 
cient, and the great man shall have repose. AVitb thee, 
gentle Peace, will I live and love I " He rose and walked 
across his room, his face beaming with a gentleness and 
meekness and benignness which. were extremely beautiful to 
behold ; like the countenance of the Angel of Light beam- 
ing forth from behind the retreating clouds. Said he : " I 
have fought the great fight, and the victory is won ! Fu- 
ture ages will applaud Strap Buckner for the greatness that 
he forbore to pluck, even more than for that which he 
plucked. I retire from arms in the midst of glorious tri- 
umph. Come, gentle Peace ; encircle me in thy pleasant 
arms, and bathe my brow in kisses ! Ah ! " And he again 
fell back upon his back, and made a motion as if he were 
hugging and hugged. It is said that his eyes looked 
liquorish. 

What a pity it is that there is a devil that always fol- 
lows the tracks of the Angel of Light, and sows thorns and 
snakes where that one has sown blessings ! 

He felt a thirst, and he reached forth his liand for liis 
jug, but he found it empty. "Ah !" said he, '^this will 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 57 

not do. I must pour a libation to gentle Peace." He called 
his swift grey nag, the gift of the mighty King Tuleahca- 
homa, and holding his jug in one hand and the rein in the 
other, hied away; his long red hair streaming like a meteor 
behind him. When he rose the east bank of the Colorado, 
as fate would have it, he saw twenty-two Indian braves, 
who havinor exchans^ed their skins for whiskev and trinkets, 
were having a gay dance under the boughs of an oak. In 
their elastic motions their fat bellies and broad breasts were 
exposed, and glittered in the sun ; the sight of which caused 
a light to beam on Strap's countenance, as if all the kind- 
ness in the world had suddenly taken possession of his 
heart. He smiled a sweet smile, like an ardent lover con- 
templating his darling, or the old grey goose smiling on the 
gander. He dismounted, and stepping lightly into the 
circle of braves, knocked them all down. He then turned 
to each one and bowed with exquisite grace, and the gentle- 
ness on his countenance was sweet. You see how treach- 
erous genius is, and how feeble are the best efforts to with- 
stand it. He that hath a genius must needs let it work. 
Lightly he stepped into the trading-house, smiling as the 
dawn, carrying his clenched fists before him. He met Bob 
Turket at the door, and instantly knocked him down. His 
eyes sparkled, his genius was aglow. Bill Smotherall, be- 
holding the light of his countenance, essayed to escape, but 
a powerful blow overtook him between the shoulders and 
felled him face downward to the floor. A clock, in the 
form of a fat knight with walling and portly belly, ticked 
on the counter. His genius was in eruption. He let fly 
at the portly knight, and the clock flew into a hundred 
pieces. He jumped upon the counter and flapped his el- 
bows against his flanks, and crowed a crow which rang 
among the hills and forests of the Colorado. His genius 
for the first time had overcome and pushed aside his kind- 
ness of heart; for never before, in all his achievements, 
3* 



5S TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

had he uttered note of triumph. I fear me it was a mark 
of the decadence of his noble spirit. 

HE COMETH ! 

But all of this perhaps had not been so bad had he not 
now resorted to that treacherous fluid which men put into 
their mouths to steal away their brains. Perchance in his 
next moments of seclusion and meditation his better spirit 
would have revisited him, and with the tender voice of re- 
proval and monition led him by the right way. But the 
sad, one false step ! It seemed Fate had ordained it other- 
wise. Calling for his jug, he ordered it filled with the 
fatal 'fluid, and seizing a quart measure, he drank at one 
draught all it would hold. Instantly, as might be sup- 
posed, his genius broke all bounds ; it raged. FiUing the 
quart measure with water, he made with its contents a 
wet ring on the floor, in the centre of which he leaped 
like a savage beast. He smote the air with his fists and 
exclaimed in a loud voice : ''Behold in me. Bob Turket, 
Bill Smotherall, and ye red men of the forest and prairie 
— behold in me the champion of the world ! I defy all 
that live. I wager my swift grey nag, the gift of the 
mighty King Tuleahcahoma. Who will take the wager ? 
Yea, I defy the veritable old Devil himself — him of the 
cloven hoof and tawny hide. Black imp of hell, thou 
Satanas, I defy thee ! " 

Scarcely had he uttered these words when a singular 
murmuring sound issued from the forests of the Colorado, 
which, growing louder and louder, at last seemed to quiver 
under the whole heavens. Bob Turket and Bill Smoth- 
erall looked at one another, speechless and pale. The 
braves gathered about the door stricken with terror, 
gazing with startling eyeballs now into the forests of the 
Colorado, now at Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall, and 
now upon tJie champion of the world. Said the- great 



TWO THOUSAND MILES ^ TEXAS ON HaRSEBACK. 59 

Medicine Man, sounding his big bongbooree : '' It is— it 
is— it is he ! The Great Father of the Red Son of Blue 
Thunder has descended from the clouds. He cometh to 
aid his great son, Kokulblothetopoff, who raiseth his 
mighty fists to the skies, and bringeth them down 
again. Red sons of the forest and prairie, the Wahconda 
calls ye away ! " The great Medicine Man hung his big 
bongbooree over his back, and sped away like- a turkey 
that is afraid. He leaped rocks and fallen logs in his 
flight. Twenty-one Indian braves, all in a row, sped be- 
hind him like twenty-one turkeys that are afraid. And 
they leaped rocks and fallen logs as they fled. Evaserunt 
or re, abierunt or re ! 

Outspake Bob Turket : ''Mighty champion of the 
world, norate to us what is that ! " 

The champion of the world, still occupying the center 
of the ring, responded : '' It is not the Great Father of the 
Red Son of Blue Thunder ; it is not the Wahconda calling- 
the red sons of the forest and prairie to hie hence. I know 
that familiar voice : it is Noche — it is dread Noclie ! He 
sent me a challenge through the air, and behold, he comes ! 
I conquered him once before, and I will conquer him 
again. Black, dread Xoche, I defy thee ! I fling thy 
challenge back upon thy grizzly frontlet ! " 

The singular murmuring sound again issued from the 
deep forests of the Colorado, growing louder and louder, 
till the everlasting hills trembled with the reverberation, 
and the great oaks bowed their heads. It articulated dis- 
tinctly, according to the true report of Bob Turket : '-'Ah, 
Strap, — ah, Strap ! Remember, Strap, remember ! " 

Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall fell upon their faces, 
exclaiming : " Mighty champion of the world, depart 
hence ! And thy memorialists will ever pray ! " 

The champion seized his Jug by the handle, and pour- 
ing out a quart measure of the treacherous liquid, imbibed 



60 TWO THOUSAND. MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

it at a single draught. He then mounted his swift grey 
nag and sped away with the fury of a whirlwind. Bob 
Turket and Bill Smotherall watched him as he passed out 
of view, and then listened to the rapid clatter of hoofs till 
they died away in the distance, but durst not venture out 
of their doors. They relate, in their true report, that as 
the champion rode away, a strange creature, in the dread 
form of a red monkey, leaped up behind him and rode 
away with him. They relate further, that this strange 
creature turned full upon them, and placing his thumb 
upon his nose, made at them the sign of derision. Be all 
this as it may, when Strap reached his cabin and stripped 
his nag, he observed upon his haunches abundant scratches 
and blood, as if they had been stricken with the claws of a 
wild beast. He entered his cabin. 

• La Noche Triste. 

Night was rapidly falling, and rolling clouds involved 
the heavens in pitchy blackness. Sulphurous vapors 
scudded below the clouds, whose black bosoms were riven 
with bolts of lightning, and fearful thunder resounded 
through the deserted vale. A storm of wind and rain 
burst upon the cabin with terrible fury, and the champion 
was compelled to bar his door to stay the invasion. Then 
in the midst of the wild tumult of the elements, he pro- 
ceeded to cook his supper of hoe-cake and fried bacon. 
The bacon sizzled deliciously, and the hoe-cake grew to a 
rich brown. When all was ready, he spread his table, and 
was invoking an earnest blessing on him who invented 
fried bacon and hoe-cake, when suddenly an impetuous 
blast of the tempest blew open one of his windows with 
violence. Strap raised his eyes and saw two fiery balls, 
about four inches apart, staring at him through the open 
window. They were motionless, but stared with an intense 
and sinister expression, as if they meant mischief, and 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IJS^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 61 

never doubted their power to inflict it. ^* Ah," said Strap, 
'' Ocelot — wildcat — hast thou come to interview me ? or 
wouldst thou forget thy sorrows in a sip from my jolly 
jug ? or wouldst thou take a little fried bacon and hoe- 
cake ? or is the tempest too much for thy glossy skin, 
and thou comest to implore refuge with me under my 
roof ? Truly, I might accord thee all of these and feel 
myself blessed to do it, but thy glaring, infernal eyes 
betray thee, and say that thou wouldst return villainy 
for these mercies. Take thee to my warm couch and 
sleep with thee — to find my throat cut in the morning, and 
the warm blood sucked from my veins ? Ocelot, seek the 
hospitality of fools ? Speed thee away ! What ! Starest 
still ? and redoublest the fury in thine eyes ? Wouldst 
fight? Then take this!" 

He plucked a stone from his hearth and threw it with 
all his might at the glaring balls, but it missed its mark 
and they did not move. 

^* Ah, thou art brave," said he, *^and my hand is un- 
steady. Wouldst beard me in my den ? Then let me try 
thee with my pestle ! " With that he seized his iron mace 
and strode with it uplifted to the window. He drew back 
to plant the blow of a giant between the glaring balls. The 
blow fell, but it struck only against the window-sill, with 
such force that it sank half through the heart of oak. 
The balls evaded it and disappeared in the outer darkness. 
Strap then barred the window more firmly than before, 
and sat down to sup. 

He was chewing a lengthy piece of bacon, whose ends 
protruded from each corner of his mouth, when a blinding 
flash of lightning fell, accompanied with a burst of thunder 
so close and violent that it seemed the ancient hills were 
riven from their foundations and were tottering to their 
fall. For a moment Strap felt himself stunned with the 
flame and concussion. ''Bless me," Baid he, "now has 



62 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

the Father given us enough of lightning and dire thun- 
der ! But what, ye gods, is this ? " 

He beheld, dancing on the floor before him, a remark- 
able black figure, with insolent eyes of fiery redness. It 
was in the shape of a man, but was not three feet high, 
had two red horns on its head, and its feet, which were 
large, were cloven like the hoofs of a bull. Its nose was 
prominent and hooked like the beak of an eagle, and its 
face was gaunt and thin. Though so small of stature, its 
visage was hard and wrinkled, and showed age and infinite 
villainy. As it danced before him, it placed the thumb of 
the right hand against its nose and made at Strap the in- 
sulting sign of derision ; but it spake not. 

Strap was amazed, but he was not overcome. He let 
the long piece of bacon drop from his mouth. '^Is this a 
creation of the heat-oppressed brain ?" said he ; '^a pen- 
cilling on my mind of the jolly artist who dwells in yon 
jug ? Whilst thou dancest, let me ponder. I wake, I 
know ; I have my faculties, I know. May the mind under 
control such fantastic forms create?" Ilis soliloquy was 
cut short by the singular object ceasing to dance, and step- 
ping by Strap's side, taking a seat unbid in a chair upon 
the hearth. As it did so, its stature commenced growing, 
and did not stop till it had grown to twice its original pro- 
portions. It drew from between its legs a long tail, with 
a hard pronged point, which Strap had not observed before, 
and twirled it over so that the point fell on Strap's knee. 
This disgusted Strap. He hastily pushed his chair away to 
the opposite corner of the hearth, and observed : " Keep 
thy prolongation to thyself, strange visitor ! " 

'' Skin for skin,*' said the figure, resting his elbow on 
his knee and his chin between his thumb and index finger 
of the right hand, and regarding Strap with keen interest. 
At the same time he twirled his tail over again with 
such force and accurate aim that the sharp point of it 



TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N' TEXAS OH HORSEBACK. 63 

struck deeply into the mantel-piece, and there it hung 
fixed. 

"What might thy name be ?" said Strap, "who visit- 
est me at this unseemly hour ? Speak ! thy name and thy 
business I " 

" Skin for skin," said the object. 

" Skin for skin ! Hast thou no other name on the 
night's Plutonian shore ? " 

"Sir," said the object, rising from the chair and ex- 
tracting his tail from the mantel-piece, advancing a step 
toward Strap, "men call me by many names. Thou hast 
called me black imp of hell, thou Satanas ! So be it. Skin 
for skin ! Thou hast challenged me to duel, and hast wa- 
gered upon the result thy swift grey nag, the gift of the 
mighty King, Tuleahcahoma. Thrice hast thou challenged, 
and thrice have I accepted. I come to meet thee now, or to 
fling thy challenge into thy teeth ; to pull thy ruddy beard." 

He seized his tail in his right hand, and held it like a 
javelin about to be thrust. Strap gazed upon this singular 
instrument, and meditatively spake : " Good Sir Devil, 
take a seat. AYouldst thou attack a gentleman in his cups ? 
None but a thief and coward would do that. Put thy 
prolongation away, I prithee. Leave me to my sleep and 
restoration, and I will meet thee man to man. To-morrow 
morning at nine o'clock Avill I meet thee." 

The Devil advanced again, saying : "Give us thy hand. 
Strap Buckner ; skin for skin : to-morrow morn at nine 
o'clock, under yon oaks that overlook thy dwelling from 
the south." They clasped hands and shook them heartily. 
"Now," said he, "will I leave thee to sleep and restora- 
tion. Truly, he hath neither courage nor honor who 
would attack a gentleman in his cups." 
Strap then sang : 

" Then wilt thou he gone, love ; 
Wilt thou be gone, love — 
Be gone, love, from me ? " 



64 TWO THOUSAI^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

And the Devil sang : 

" Nita— 
Juanita ! " 

The Devil then stepped toward the door. Strap moved 
forward to unbar it and let him out, but the Devil made a 
bound for the keyhole, and passed through, tail and all, in 
the twinkling of an eye. As he did so he filled the room 
with a strong odor of brimstone, insomuch that the cham- 
pion was compelled to hold his nose. " No wonder," said 
he, ^' since lie was squeezed so tight. Pull me through a 
keyhole, and I dare say I would not leave a less odorous re- 
port." He then for a moment, threw open the window to 
the tempest, and burned a few cotton rags to deodorize 
the room; which, having done, he sat quietly by his table 
and ate a hearty repast of hoe-cake and bacon. 

You would think that placed in such remarkable cir- 
cumstances — the most remarkable that man was ever placed 
in — he would have given loose rein to his fancy, and in- 
dulged in gloomy soliloquies. But he did not. He knew 
that these things consume the oxygen and wear away the 
tissues of the flesh, producing languor and prostration. 
Said he : ^* I have nothing to do but husband my strength 
and meet the inevitable." After supping he walked his 
cabin an hour to promote digestion, and by exercise to 
force out through the pores of the skin the treacherous 
fluid which he had drunken at the trading-house. He 
then sank upon his couch and slept as soundly as an infant. 
I know not how true it is, but it is said that smiles played 
around his lips all night. The more I think of him, the 
more am I carried away in admiration of his sublime char- 
acter. Truly, the world has seen few such extraordinary 
men. Had he lived in antiquity he would have been a god, 
and temples would have been erected in his honor. I 
know not which is the more unfortunate, he that comes 
too soon, or he that comes too late into the Avorld. Suffice 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 65 

it that either must pass through the world misunderstood 
and misrepresented — alone, and quite friendless. He who 
lives in advance of his time has few companions. Fortune 
grant that such be not my fate ! Laurels that come after 
one is under the sod and flourish over his grave, are well 
enough, but give me a few while I live ; and those that 
may not come at all are intolerable. 

The Day of Evekts. 

Day liad dawned, but its light struggled almost in vain 
with the storm which still held carnival in the valley. 
Strap rose refreshed and vigorous, and the blood ran rosily 
and merrily through his manly form. The light of battle 
illumined his countenance. Rather would I have taken 
him for some conquering knight of old, who after resting 
from his great exploits, was about to receive the smiles and 
kisses of his ladye-love, than one who puts on his armor 
for combat the most dreadful that mortal ever engaged in. 
First, he took a shower-bath in the slanting storm of rain, 
whose myriads of big drops fell upon him like rattling 
musketrv. Durino^ ten minutes he turned his broad, naked 
back to it, till the skin glittered like rosy velvet under the 
pelting ; ten minutes he received it on his manly front, 
standing like a statue with both arms extended ; the light- 
ning flashing, and the bolts of thunder bursting around 
him ; then he turned his right flank, then his left. Forty 
minutes were thus passed in the shower-bath furnished by 
the warriilg elements, charged with ammonia and subtle 
electricity ; after which forty more were passed in rubbing 
the glowing flesh, in his cabin, with matting woven from 
the shaggy mosses of the forest. Which having done, he 
stood in the centre of the room, the most glorious picture 
of perfect manhood ever seen in the world. As he surveyed 
himself, his bosom swelled with exultation. Said he : ^^Is 
not this a picture for the Queen of the Amazons to look 



66 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS 0>^ HORSEBACK. 

upon ? Would not the magnificent Aphrodite give half 
her immortality to encircle this manly form one moment 
with her glowing locks ? " Ah me, it distresses me to 
think that such noble manhood should pass from the earth 
without increase ! Ah, Strap, it was thy greatest fault to 
have denied to the world and love what was their due ! 

He breakfasted on the remnants of the hoe-cake and 
bacon left from the night's repast, first warming them in 
a pan. The merry jug stood near, inviting him to taste 
its amber fluid, but he turned away from it with a look of 
reproach. "I will embrace thee when I return," said he, 
**if so be it fortune favor. Thou art good for him who 
putteth off his armor, but ill luck to him who girdeth it 
on." Donning his garment of buckskin, he said : '^ The 
hour arrives ! " 

Taking his iron limb in liis right hand, the only aid 
he asked from art, this matchless hero stepped out into 
the storm, and made fast the door behind him. The 
tempest smote upon his noble brow ; the clouds saluted 
him with a salvo of thunder, and the lightning garlanded 
his locks. He called his swift nag, the gift of the great 
Tuleahcahoma, who came, and he fixed his saddle upon 
him, whereupon he mounted and rode away to war. 

He had advanced but a few paces when the Infernal 
Fiend, in the form of a skinny, ugly dwarf, appeared before 
him, dancing a jig, but he did not make the insulting 
sign of derision. He bowed politely and said : " Hail to 
thee. Strap Buckner ! I see that thou art as good as thy 
word, and a man of honor. Receive my obeisance to a 
man of courage ! I will lead and thou wilt follow." 

"I dare follow where the Foul Fiend leadeth," said 
Strap. And both moved onward through the storm, the 
Fiend in advance. A white flame of lightning illuminated 
the valley, and when Strap looked again the Fiend had dis- 
appeared, but in place of him a long, black cat hopped 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 1:5^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 67 

along by bis side, and looked into bis face and mewed. 
" Ab, Ocelot," said be, *^ dost tbou encounter the tempest 
yet ? Better betake tbee to tby bollow tree, lest tby furs 
be rubbed tbe wrong way." Again tbe blinding ligbt- 
nino- came, and tbe tbunder rent tbe air and reverberated 
tbrougb tbe vale. Wben Strap looked again tbe mewing 
cat bad disappeared, but in place of it a spry Skye terrier 
tripped along by bis side, and looked into bis face witb a 
frisky, silly look. " Ab," said Strap, ^' Skye terrier, dost 
tbou like tbe tempest ? Better baste tbee to tbe trading 
house and catch rats under tbe smeltering skins, lest tbe 
tempest pick tbee up and blow tbee away." Again the 
tbunder detonated and tbe lightning lit tbe vale. Strap 
looked and tbe Skye terrier bad gone, but a huge black 
bear was walking by his side, turning to look at him with 
a grin. "Ah," said Strap, "this is tbe history and tbe 
panorama of nature ; tbe lesser forms and tbe lower de- 
velop into tbe bigger forms and tbe higher. Shall I see, 
then, in a few minutes what it has taken Old Time myriads 
of ages to evolve ? What philosopher has ever been so 
blest ? Dost tbou like tbe flood. Bruin ? Better betake 
thee to thy cave in tbe rocks and eat acorns. Who knows 
but thy spouse may play thee false whilst tbou art absent 
in the tempest — she believing or professing thee lost and 
dead ?" 

Again the blinding lightning came, and tbe tbunder 
shook tbe vale. When Strap looked again tbe bear bad 
gone, but an enormous bull, black as night, strode before 
him, his tail tossed over bis back, and the valley trembled 
as he strode. " Ab," said Strap, "this is Nocbe, I per- 
ceive ; my old friend Noche, who knows that I am bis 
innocent friend. How is tby frontlet, ISTocbe ? Hast 
thou had the screw-worms picked out of thy wounds, and 
has thy nose ceased bleeding ? Better betake tbee to a 
pretty, protected nook, and eat cowslips and make calves 



68 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

for an lionest milk-raaid. Pretty work for thee, Noche : 
and thou exposest thyself to the tempest, and from choice ? 
I dare say the milk-maid has broken a joint of thy tail 
that thou earnest it on thy back, and thy females have 
kicked thee out, an unprofitable drone, to starve from un- 
kindness." Again the blinding lightning came with such 
sudden vehemence that it smote sorely on Stray's eyes, 
and the thunder shook the vale to the solid granite below. 
*' Bless me," said Strap, '•' another such as this, I fear me, 
will burst the balls." When he had recovered his sight, 
Noche had departed, but in his stead the Fiend in stately 
form marched before him — stately, all save his tail, which 
he transported behind him, curved up round like a fish- 
hook. He looked back, and placing his index finger on 
his nose, licked out his tongue and laughed. ** Ha ! " said 
Strap, '• laughest thou ! He laugheth best who laugheth 
last." His heart swelled with the affront, and it was with 
great ado that he could help seizing the Fiend's tail by the 
apex of the hook and crushing it off with one blow of his 
pestle. 

They had now reached the foot of the upland that 
looks into the vale. Silently they ascended to a cluster 
of noble oaks, venerable with mossy beard. The green 
sward was rich around them, and the plateau was level 
and smooth. Rather seemed it a place for fairies to dance 
under the moonlight than for Fiend and hero to meet in 
the struggle of death. As they looked around, both 
spake: "JSTow is the hour and here the place." Strap 
dismounted and turning liis grey nag loose, with his bridle 
slipped over his head, said to him : ^^ Charge thyself with 
grass, whilst I charge myself with the Devil. Prosper my 
work like thine ! " The grey nag wagged his bobtail, and 
said : ^^I charge." Without the tremor of a nerve, with- 
out air of fear or air of boast, this matchless hero con- 
fronted the Fiend. As he did so, this latter meanlv com- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. G9 

menced to grow, and ceased not to grow till he had 
achieved such stature that his head was an hundred and 
ninety feet in the air, and he was eighty feet in girth. 
His tail grew in correspondence, till, seizing it, he gave it 
a twirl, and the point stru("k the bosom of a black cloud 
with such force that it penetrated into it and there stuck. 
As he had a right to do, Strap complained of this injus- 
tice. Said he : '^Foul Fiend, thou art no fair man to 
ask me to fight with thee on unequal terms. If thou 
choosest such terms, I brand thee villainous coward." 

The Fiend looked down from his lofty stature, and 
with a voice that confused all living things within a vast 
circumference, said : " Put aside thy iron limb, thy 
mace, thy pestle, and I will accommodate me to thy size. 
Skin for skin ! " Strap tossed his pestle aside, whereat 
the Fiend commenced shrinking, and ceased not to shrink 
till he had shrunken to Strap's size — all save his tail, 
which still remained hitched in the bosom of the cloud. 
He now took position before Strap in the attitude of a 
boxer, and Strap took position before him in the same at- 
titude. He kept his eye on Strap, and Strap kept his eye 
on him, either guarding against any advantage or cheat by 
the other. The Fiend now drew back for a pass at Strap, 
but just at that moment the black cloud in which his tail 
was hitched was rapidly passing beyond its length, and it 
drew the Devil backwards and upwards with great force, 
causing him exceeding great pain at the point of its junc- 
ture with the body. The air suddenly became impregnated 
with a fearful odor of brimstone, insomuch that Strap was 
obliged to burn a few cotton rags to deodorize it. Now 
had he but used the advantage which offered itself to him, 
what infinite fame would be his ! Ah, me, it pains my 
heart to think of the weaknesses and fatal mistakes that 
good men commit under a false sense of honor. As the 
cloud was dragging the Fiend backward and upward, nearly 



70 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

paralyzed with pain, how easily Strap could have taken a 
stone and crushed him withal, or his pestle and spilt his 
brains withal ! Instead of this, under a false sense of 
honor, and in the kindness of his heart, he proffered the 
Fiend assistance to unhitch his tail ! Ah, me ! I nearly 
faint with despair while relating it. The Devil leaped up 
in the air and rolled himself up in the coils of his tail till 
he had reached the cloud, and there, with the help of claws 
and hoofs and horns, succeeded at last in unhitching it. 
Immediately, back he sprang, and stood before Strap in the 
attitude of a boxer. My heart sinks within me to relate 
it. Honor with the Devil ! What wanton weakness ! 

I might give thee now the many rounds as they occur- 
red, had I the heart, after Strap's exhibition of his folly, 
to do so. Suffice it to say that the battle raged with vary- 
ing fortunes all day, till the Devil, having less honor and 
more wiles, grew again to monstrous size, and at last wore 
Strap out on the unequal terms, till the mighty champion 
sought quarter, crest-fallen and utterly overcome. The 
country for a great circuit round rang with, the hideous 
noise of battle, and Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall and 
forty Indian braves stood on the bank of the river and 
hearkened to it, amazed. As night fell they saw a great 
grey horse riding through the air down the valley, with the 
dread form of a red monkey astride his back in front, and 
the form of an overpowered man dangling across him be- 
hind. The horse and riders lit on the top of yon cedar- 
covered mountain that looks down upon Lagrange from 
the north, and then all disappeared in the umbrageous 
forest. When morning came Bob Tiirket and Bill Smoth- 
erall and a thousand Indian braves crossed over the river 
and marched to Strap's house, which they found as he had 
left it, deserted and closed. Looking about, they at last 
came to the spot where the dread encounter had occurred. 
The earth had been torn away to the bare rock, and on the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 71 

rock were deep impressions of cloven hoofs and Strap's 
feet. No earth has ever accumulated, and no green gi'ass 
or tree has ever grown on that accursed spot since ; but it 
remains, and will forever remain, in bleak deformity. A 
pile of gory hair and beard was found near, which they 
recognized as Strap's. A broken cloven hoof they also 
found, which had a strange unearthly smell, and near it 
was Strap's iron limb. This they religiously preserved, 
and bore it back on poles in solemn silence, and deposited 
it in his cabin through a crack. And they all wept aloud 
and shed salt tears, and the great Medicine Man sounded 
his big bongbooree. 

He Returns. 

Three months passed, and one morn as Bob Turket 
and Bill Smotherall were counting their skins, they were 
stricken with amazement to see Strap Buckner ride up 
before them on his swift grey nag, the gift of the mighty 
King Tuleahcahoma. He dismounted and stood before 
them, and they were the more amazed. And he looked 
distant and sad and solemn, as if he were contemplating 
things afar off. He spake to them not ; but they fell on 
their faces before him, and said: ^^ Mighty champion of 
the world, depart hence!" He said simply: "Skin for 
skin!" 

" Mighty champion of the world," replied they, "take 
all of our skins and depart hence ! " He replied simply : 
"Skin for skin ; " and mounting his grey nag, he crossed 
over the river and sadly and slowly rode away. Bob Turket 
and Bill Smotherall watched him departing, and counted 
no more skins that day. 

Three mouths he dwelt in his cabin, and thrice weekly 
he visited the trading-house, whei'e he walked about like 
one contemplating the dead, with a sad and distant air. 
He volunteered to speak to none, and the only response to 



72 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOHSEBACK:. 

every question was — ^^ Skin for skin." He was a changed 
man. He would drink no whiskey, and would knock no 
man down. Yet Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall and the 
Indian braves shrank from him with awe and dread, and 
the great Medicine Man, whenever he saw him, stopped 
and sounded his big bongbooree. Finally, one night, a 
great blue flame rose far above the valley, and cast a pale, 
deathly light over the land. Bob Turket and Bill Smoth- 
erall and ninety Indian braves watched it all night. On 
the top of the blue flame they beheld a great grey nag, and 
astride of him sat the dread form of a red monkey, and 
behind the red monkey sat the form of a gigantic man 
waving a gigantic iron pestle, whereat the dread form of 
the red monkey seemed to cower. When morning arose. 
Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall and eleven hundred In- 
dian braves crossed over the river and marched to Strap's 
house. They found it in ashes and cinders. They stood 
around it in solemn silence, and with one accord wept 
aloud and spilt salt tears. The great Medicine Man 
sounded his big bongbooree. 

Evasit, ahiit I Since that mysterious and perhaps 
fatal night, lie has never been seen in his proper person as 
in the olden time. ^' But still," added my companion, " to 
quote from the lines of our local bard, who has emblazoned 
his history in immortal verse : 

" But still the enthusiast bards relate, 
In memory of his gallant past, 
That oft he is seen in gloom of state. 

To ride his steed on the whirlwind blast. 

" He rises lowering on the view, 

His red hair streaming from on high, 
Clad in a garb of sulphurous blue. 

Which casts a shade o'er his frenzied eye. 

" As he whirls like a god on his clouded path, 
And shakes his locks and his iron limb, 
He looks on none in the might of his wrath. 
And he speaks to none though they speak to him. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES Iiq" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 73 

" Let no one scorn the friendly tale, ^ 

Or doubt unkind its shadowed truth, 
For still the Buckner boys bewail 
Their noble but mysterious youth. 

" He stands a talisman whose spell 

Shall ne'er forget its generous sway ; 
And with his folk his name shall dwell — 
A name not made to pass away." 

"Yes, sir," continued he, "often at night, when the 
tempest howls and the thunders roar, his form, or shadow, 
or image, or whatever it be, is seen to stride this valley in 
which we ride, on his swift bob-tail nag, the gift of the 
mighty King Tuleahcahoma. I myself saw him distinctly, 
in our last great equinoctial storm, shoot down the valley 
with a sulphurous whirl and glare, and light on yonder 
cedar-covered mountain, whence he disappeared in the 
umbrageous forest. When a Buckner Creek baby cries, 
whether from pure perverseness or colic pains in the bowels, 
only say to him * Strap Buckner ' once, and he will forth- 
with scrooch up in his cradle, and you will hear no more 
from that baby for hours. Behold in him the tutelar divin- 
ity to whom all the cow-boys lift up their emulation and 
prayers." 

"I perceive, sir," said I, "that thou art a true poet, 
and I thank thee." 

" And I perceive, sir," said he, "that thou art a true 
epilogue, and I thank thee. This is the road which bids 
me depart from thee. Should I meet thee again under 
favorable circumstances, and thine ear still thirsteth for 
knowledge, I will impart thee more. And now farewell." 

He turned his horse and departed away from me, as 

other friends have done before. 
4 



VII. 

Snake Praikie. 

EMERGING from the legendary vale, I rode upon a 
prairie whose name is Snake. It is an immense 
table, rising above all the region round ; treeless, except 
an occasional mot of oak, and level, save that here and 
there is a slight depression, marked by a black sticky soil, 
and covered with dark tussocks of coarse, wiry grass. 
Elsewhere the soil is thin, often exposing the rough back- 
bone of the rock. The fertilizing ingredients, as fast as 
they collect, are driven into the depressions, or beaten off 
into the subjacent lowlands by wind and rain, thus devot- 
ing it to hopeless sterility. As I ride over it a sense of 
loneliness depresses me. My eyes wander in vain to dis- 
cover some sign of human habitation. No herds feed on 
its stubby grass ; no bird warbles in the air ; no grass- 
hopper ; not even a lizard on the rock. The wind which 
here blows perpetually, passes over it in silence, as if with 
averted face. 

No snake would live here unless a stark fool, who pre- 
ferred miser}'- to happiness, and I cannot conceive why 
the name was given to this abandoned prairie, unless out 
of man's despite toward the crawling creature who 
*^ brought death into the world and all our woe." Of all 
creatures that fly or swim or crawl or walk, the snake is 
the most hideous in man's sight. We cannot see him or 
think of him without feelings of total depravity, and our 
onlv instinct is to seize a stone and crush his head, or turn 



TWO THOUSAis^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 75 

heel and fly from his detested presence. It makes no dif- 
ference how prettily marked or how innocuous he may be, 
we see in his beauty and ugliness alike, nothing but dis- 
gust and infernal stratagems and spoils. His thoughts 
toward us are likewise total depravity. No sooner does 
he see us than he commences to lick out his tongue, and 
to devote us to the infernal gods. Our poets, our orators, 
our historians, our harpists, our prima-donnas, our beau- 
tiful damsels, are to him a disgust and hate, the sight of 
whom fills him with the desire of murder. We are natural 
enemies, between whom peace has never existed and never 
will exist. It is a warfare which the millennium will not 
terminate. It seems to me that this singular nomencla- 
ture was given to the prairie as a satire both upon the 
snake and the prairie. AVhen the true facts of the case 
shall be elicited, I dare sav it will be discovered that the 
Devil and Strap Buckner fought all over it before their 
warfare was over, and hence its forbidding aspect to 
this day.* 

* It has always appeared to me that the history of Eve and the serpent is the 
severest satire ever written or spoken of the fair sex ; and after that they should 
look with charity upon the little uncharitable flings of the sterner sex at some 
of their peculiarities. Juvenal, who was a merciless, almost brutal, satirist of 
the womankind, never wrote anything half so severe. From the Mosaic stand- 
poiut,Eve was the most perfect as well as the fairest of her sex. She came into 
the world sinless, by the direct act of the hands of God, and differed from the 
pure angels only in that she had no wings, and was not of ethereal or spiritual 
substance ; and yet this most superior woman allowed herself to be led from her 
allegiance to her husband and her God, and utterly perverted and ruined, by the 
seductions of a hideous high-land moccasin or a cobra di capello— a creature 
which no woman since has ever been able to behold without an Involuntary 
shudder or scream ! The idea of a lady accepting a gift from one of these hid- 
eou"* creatures, particularly when presented from his mouth, seems utterly out 
of the question. 

Note 2, — Two gentlemen, residing near San Antonio, who had been bitten by 
rattlesnakes, told me that no sooner had the reptiles struck them than they 
scampered away with every manifestation of delight over the deed they had 
done. Said one of these gentlemen : "Snakes, you know, glide away smoothly, 
with the entire body prone to the ground ; but this fellow who had bitten me, 
scampered away with an up-and-down, or wave-like motion of the body, as if 
he was thrilled with delight. Getting under a large rock where he was safe from 
pursuit, he turned and raising his head aloft waved it to and fro, as if he were 



76 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

And yet I should be false to every fair consideration if 
I should speak only of the evil points of this remarkable 
prairie, and leave its good ones unheralded. In one aspect 
it is remarkably good — a very angel of beneficence. 
Standing above the surrounding region, it disperses over 
the vales and plains below, with every rain that falls, 
nearly all the fertility it derives from its decomposing roeks 
and vegetation, from bird or animal, or receives from the 
atmosphere. The quantity wdiich it thus casts annually 
upon its neighbors is great, keeping them always rich, 
though in doing so it condemns itself to everlasting poverty. 
It distills, collects, disperses and concentrates fertility, and 
the world is tiie better off for it. It is therefore like unto 
a great soul that labors incessantly and lovingly with the 
single thought to confer blessings upon others, contenting 
itself with the sublime reward which the consciousness of 
such good bestows. When I think of it in this aspect, I 
can scarcely repress my admiration of the lonesome, aban- 
doned prairie, and it almost repents me to have spoken of 
it as I have. It would, too, make a noble sheep-walk 
unto the shepherd that dwells in the vales below. Its 
short, stubby grasses would be the delight of these nibblers, 
who prefer dainty little morsels to the ranker food of the 
rich valleys. 

The Vale of Seclusive. 

Ten miles over this lonely dispenser of fertility, who 
worketh only for the good of others, scorning its own, I 
descended abruptly into another vale where the whole 
prospect pleases. It was like stepping out of a desert into 

sajing to himself : ' Ah, old fellow, I have got you now I Don't yon feel good, 
though ? ' It would require but little stretch of the imagination to conceive 
that snake the veritable old devil himself ! ' ' 

Note 3.—" Be as wise as serpents.'"''— The particular sort of wisdom here meant 
is probably that which holds that everyone will bear watching, and will harm 
you if he can. Be ever on the alert to take care of yourself ! Trust not at all, 
unless that ye be "■ deceived and likewise sucked in." 



TWO THOUSAND MILES liN^ TEXAS OxS'' HORSEBACK. 7? 

an oasis of roses and fairies. This is called ^' Live Oak 
Creek," and it is so much like the Buckner Creek valley 
that each seems either. It is only less in width, but not 
so in fertility and varied beauty of scenery. Its level 
bosom is occupied by the same prosperous-looking farms — 
the cotton bale piled high or tumbled around loosely in 
every yard. The noble live-oak, with his Druid beard, 
appears here for the first time on my journey, and is the 
principal shade tree around the dwellings of the farmers. 
This valley is so remote from the busy scenes of life that 
I involuntarily named it Seclusive. Away from railroads, 
away from town and village, it rests in sweet, sleepy 
security. 

" A pleasing land of drowsy-head it is — 
Of forms that move before the half shut eye : " 

so gentle, so placid, so remote is it. If one wishes to get 
away from lawyers, and doctors, and duns, I can recom- 
mend to him no better locality. 

I stopped at a comfortable farm house by the road-side 
and a fair young girl fed me on butter-milk, eggs, honey 
and a leg of mutton. I asked her if she did not often wish 
that she had the wings of a dove, so she might fly away 
from this seclusion and return at will ? She said she had 
often heard of the sensation of loneliness, but had never 
had the opportunity to feel it. She tossed back a wealth 
of locks as if more completely to reveal a face that would 
be called pretty anywhere, and I have little doubt that she 
mentally said to me : " There, do you think with so much 
beauty I could be lonely ? " She said there " were plenty 
of girls in the valley, and as for that, young men, too," and 
that they very often had their meetings and rides. '^ And 
their love scrapes too," said I. ^' Of course," said she 
with a laugh. She told me that her father and brothers 
had '''gone to the railroad with the wagons," loaded with 
cotton and hides no doubt, and that their return Avould be 



78 TWO THOUSAND MILFS IX TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 

an event in the family, as '' all would then get a present and 
something new." I asked how often these trips to the 
railroad were made ? *' x\bont twice a year," she said. 
And all the rest of their lives were passed on the quiet 
farm. It would seem impossible that such a people could 
be otherwise than sober, virtuous and good. 

Post Oak Belts. 

Leaving the vale of Seclusive, I rode again into one of 
those remarkable belts of iron-oak, which occur frequently 
in Texas. It was of the same character with them all, 
save that the peculiar featui-es w^re probably better devel- 
oped than usual : a soil more sandy, the forest denser, and 
the solitude more profound. The trees were of large size 
and excellent timber. The hog seems to be sole master 
of this solitude, and through it he roams and fattens at 
will, on no other food than that which spontaneous nature 
provides him. Many of them are in the state ferce nat- 
urw, the rightful prey of any who may secure them. 
Occasionally I surprise some of these as I ride noiselessly 
through the forest. They bound away with immense 
speed, as if they thought all fury was in pursuit of them, 
and the woods roar behind them. 

These great forests seem to me a perplexing and yet in- 
teresting problem in geology, which to my knowledge has 
not been solved. They are usually in belts, many miles 
wide, extending great distances. Their usual or probably 
invariable direction is north-east and south-west. Two of 
these belts, known as the Cross Timbers, extend nearly the 
entire distance of the State ; and all of them, whether great 
or small, sit on eminet^ces above the contiguous territory. 
But the most striking feature that distinguishes them from 
the country through which they pass, is their soil. The 
soil of the prairies and even the timbered districts which 
lie against them, is dark and tenacious, while that of these 



TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 79 

belts is precisely the opposite, sand being the predominant 
feature. Indeed, some of them are so sandy that they are 
unfit for cultivation. Whence comes this remarkable dif- 
ference in soils that lie, sometimes for hundreds of miles, 
immediately alongside of each other ? It is plain that they 
have been derived from totally different materials, as two 
things so utterly variant could not come from the same 
source. It is a fact, too, that the rocks which lie under the 
prairies are usually some variety of limestone, while those 
of these hills, according to my observation, are invariably 
sandstone ; and yet they are of the same geological age as 
the limestone of the contiguous prairie, and sometimes 
even of a later date. This latter is the case in this present 
forest, where all the stone that I see exposed is evidently 
newer than the out-cropping stone of the contiguous prai- 
rie ; and yet there can hardly be a reasonable doubt that 
these post-oak ridges rose above the ancient waters prior to 
the prairie.* 

AVhile thinking of these strange features of these belts, 
I remembered the bars, or long narrow banks of sand that 
are common in the bays and off the coast of Texas, and 
they seemed to me to disclose the whole mystery of their 
formation. At all events, tJiere is a wonderful likeness be- 
tween them. These sand-bars are raised upon a bottom of 
hard, marly clay, precisely similar to the formation a few 
feet under the prairies. Such is the nature of the bottom 
all about them. Their tendency is to grow continually, 
and they would in time, if not combatted by the art of man, 
erect impossible barriers to navigation. Such are the two 
annoying bars in Galveston Bay, and such the two, still 
more annoying, off Galveston Island, upon which hundreds 
of thousands of dollars have been spent. Other similar 

* The state geologist iu his last report, states that this is the case, also, with 
the upper Cross Timbers, in the northern portion of the state, in which the sur- 
face development is Tertiary, while all the region about them is Cretaceous or 
older. 



80 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 

banks have been discovered far out in the Gulf of Mexico, 
all having the same direction of north-east and south-west. 
The great " Telegraphic Plateau," running across the At- 
lantic from New Foundland to Ireland, is probably another 
example on a larger scale^ and for all that we know the 
ocean may contain thousands of other instances. Whence 
they derive their sands, and by what peculiar attraction or 
forces they are thus agglomerated and heaped up, are 
questions not here within my line; but we behold the re- 
sults. If these bars or long banks of sand were left exposed 
above the surface, the soil which would form upon them 
would be precisely that of the remarkable post-oak belts of 
Texas — sand mixed with the carbonaceous matter and other 
elements of decayed vegetable and animal matter, I be- 
lieve then, in the absence of a better theory, that these 
great hills, so strangely d liferent from all the country about 
them, are but the bars and banks which formed in the 
seas of the ancient world, and that many of them rose 
above the surface while the prairies were still under water. 
I am not able to perceive any other hypothesis that will 
explain the phenomena, and I give it with considerable 
confidence that the Texas geologists will find it correct. 
The bars and banks now forming in the bays and off the 
coast of Texas, differ from the bottom about them pre- 
cisely as these belts differ from the contiguous lands, and 
the conclusion seems irresistible that the same results had 
similar causes. 

Thus ages and ages ago, when the vast area of Texas, 
and perhaps the whole world, lay dormant under the dark 
ocean, we behold the great Architect so disposing his mys- 
terious forces as to work out the greatest benefits for the 
dense populations whom He knew would one day swarm 
over this land. These great forest-belts, though often 
sterile in soil, are great natural benefits, without which 
the land would not be half so blessed. Thev have their 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 81 

uses in the inexhaustible supply of fuel and timber for the 
prairies, their abundant mast, and their equable influence 
on the seasons. Truly the Great Architect ^^doeth all 
things well." 

Plum Creek. 

I rode ten miles through the forest, when the monotony 
was relieved by a heavy swell in the ground, running north 
and south a number of miles. It looks as if it might have 
been a fortification erected by the embattled giants in the 
days of old, so regular is it in its outlines. The oaks grow 
all over it. The sandstones that bulge out along its flanks 
are infiltrated thoroughly with iron, and masses of ore lie 
loose on the surface. The outward indications give prom- 
ise that this ridge holds unlimited store of iron locked in 
its bowels, and if this be so it will one day be very valua- 
ble, though now doubtless much despised. Descending its 
long western slope I entered the valley of Plum Creek, fa- 
mous in Texas history as the vale in which two hundred 
Texas boys fought all day hand to hand with a thousand 
Comanche warriors, and gave them a sound drubbing. 
Those Texas boys of old were certainly a terrible set of 
fighters, the like of whom in that line probably the world 
has never seen. They had a true genius for fight, and their 
descendants are amply gifted with it to this day. AVhen 
tliey went in they went in all over, with the full determi- 
nation to conquer or die in their tracks. This stream is in- 
significant in itself, sometimes stealing along, a mere rill, 
sometimes standing in dark, deep pools, hidden everywhere 
under a dense growth of wild peach ; but its valley is as great 
as that of a great river, and of fertility that seems unmatched 
save in Texas. The Texans have a saying : '^ Where the 
wild peach grows, buy and grow rich ; " and I cannot doubt 
that it is sound advice and true prophecy, from what this 
valley discloses. The wild peach here is the principal 
4* 



82 TWO THOUSAND MILES i:N" TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. 

growth, the great iron-oak belt having terminated sud- 
denly at the foot of the ridge. This tree is a beautiful 
evergreen, closely resembling the orange, but with the 
smell of the peach, and yields a mast which hogs and fowls 
delight in. The wild turkey thinks it the choicest offering 
of the woods, and groweth so fat upon it that when you 
shoot him in a tree, his breast bursteth as he falls, from the 
excessive fat. Farms are numerous in the valley, but I 
judge that hardly one in ten of its noble acres has yet felt 
the plowshare in its bosom. What a glorious wealth un- 
plucked ! There is this to be said of these Texas valleys : 
every successive one the wanderer enters seems to him the 
richest, and most beautiful, and best. Travelling over the 
State one soon becomes confused where to choose. Per- 
haps as good a plan as any is to shut the eye and go it 
blind. Should he perchance stumble and stop on Plum 
Creek, it is impossible he should ever regret it, if to till 
deep and inexhaustibly rich acres, in a land that is a gar- 
den of health and serene beauty, be his choice. If the 
people who dwell here can wish for anything that they 
have not in their lands and climate, their bump of longing 
must be more unappeasable than that of the horse-leech's 
daughter. In short, theirs must be a true genius to be 
discontented. This valley with its Avindings is hardly less 
than a hundred miles in length ; it is so broad in many 
places that it does not look much like a valley, and the 
same amazing fertihty marks it from its source to its con- 
fluence with the San Marcos. I deliberately write it down 
as one of the gem spots of earth. Its people are nearly all 
Americans from the older Southern States, and seem un- 
usually intelligent and attractive in their manners. 

Mesquite Chaparral. 

And what is this that springs up so suddenly before 
me ? It is something that I have not seen before on my 



TWO THOUSAND MILES TN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 83 

journey. It starts up as unawares as an iron-oak belt, and 
is like a great army that moves with closed ranks. It is a 
mesqniie chaparral, and distinctly tells me that I have now 
entered the great region of Western Texas, of which it is 
a peculiar plume. Bless me, how thick it is ! A horse- 
man thirty feet away would be completely buried out of 
sight. The grass on the shaded ground looks like a rich 
Turkish carpet, so velvety, clean and luxuriant that one 
feels inclined to dismount from his steed and roll on it like 
a boy. That grass is the '^ curly mesquite," the sweetest 
and most nutritious of all the rich grasses that Texas so 
abundantly provides for the millions of animals that feed 
upon her bosom. It is the invariable accompaniment of 
the mesquite chaparral, though the mesquite chaparral 
does not always accompany it. 

The growth of this chaparral or thicket is a brush, 
shooting out a number of long branches from a common 
centre at the ground, armed with thorns, and every branch 
produces a number of smaller branches likewise armed. 
The foliage is light and feathery, pinnate, and drooping 
in long racemes. Such is its character here and in all the 
chaparrals, but when it grows alone, or scattered widely 
apart, it becomes a tree, about the ordinary size of the 
peach, and at a distance, when stripped of its leaver iu 
winter, greatly resembles that tree. In the chaparral it is 
almost an evergreen, for its long-reaching, multitudinous 
boughs protect from the cold northers and seem to main- 
tain perpetual spring. It is a legume, probably of the 
sub-order of mimosas, and herein is one of its most nota- 
ble properties. It yields annually an abundant crop of 
beans, the pods, from five inches to a foot in length, hang- 
ing in clusters from the boughs. These pods are very 
similar in appearance to that of the corn-field pea, but; 
owing to a rich saccharine pulp, they never become shelly 
or dry. They cannot advance to a higher state of desic- 



84 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

cation than the sugar-corn, either in the pod or bean. 
The bean is small and flattened, separated from each 
other by a considerable space of pulp in the pod, and 
when chewed in the mouth is sweet to the taste and sticky 
to the teeth. When ripe, horses and cattle devour them 
with great relish, and they will not touch them when not 
ripe, because they are then bitter and acrid. It can hardly 
be doubted that in nutritive matter they excel any edible 
pod in existence, and milk-maids say they produce a 
greater and richer flow of milk than any food they are 
acquainted with. I have never known them to be eaten 
by man as a food, but I dare say if boiled as a " snap- 
short" when tender, they would furnish a very palata- 
ble dish. 

And here comes a singular and interesting point. 
When the rains have been abundant and the grasses un- 
usually luxuriant, the mesquite yields but a slim crop of 
beans ; when the rains have been moderate, and the grasses 
are of moderate luxuriance, the crop is greatly increased; 
but when the drought has been severe and the grass is poor, 
the mesquite is literally burdened with its clusters of rich 
pods. I admit that this seems singular, but it is a fact 
which every old Western Texan will confirm. I do not 
think I ever observed, in all the works of beneficent nature, 
a more beautiful indication of design, or stronger proof 
of the infinite goodness and careful provision of the 
Creator, whose eye nothing escapes. During the winter 
following a severe drought, myriads of innocent creatures 
on the plains would suffer, and man would be injured in 
his property and lessened in his comfort, were it not for 
the timely offering, from the thorny branches of the mes- 
quite, of a food as rich as it is abundant. It reminds me 
of the mysterious quails and manna in the desert.* 

* The mesquite has three other valuable properties : it exudes a gum, 
equal to gum-arabic for every purpose for which that gum is used ; it is rich 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 85 

But in one point the chaparral is deceptive. To him 
who approaches it, it presents the appearance of an im- 
penetrable entanglement; but, on entering, he finds each 
mesquite separated some feet apart, and though the 
branches interlap and form numerous arches above, there 
are open spaces and winding labyrinths, in which the 
horse and ox find no inconvenience to food and roam, 
and the skilled horseman, clad in buckskin and heavy 
gloves, to protect against the thorns, can even dash 
through them at a sharp pace. Everywhere they are 
illuminated with patches of sunlight on the grass, and 
they are pretty places to wander in afoot : there being 
nothing of gloom about them, if we may bar the suspi- 
cion that a highwayman may be lurking within them, 
watching an opportunity to spring upon his prey : some- 
thing that not unfrequently happens in the chaparral 
along the Rio Grande. Perhaps I shall have more to say 
of the chaparral after awhile. 

Hog- WALLOW Peairie. 

The prairie which has been seized upon by this chap- 
arral, has also a peculiarity new to me on this journey. 
It is filled with saucer-like depressions, from the size of a 
wash-bowl to many feet in diameter. These are thought 
to resemble the wallows made by hogs in muddy places, 
and hence this peculiar style of prairie is called "hog- 
wallow prairie." The depressions are so numerous that it 
looks as if the earth had suffered from a severe case of 
• small-pox, but the pits rarely if ever run into each other. 
The soil upon this, as upon all other hog-wallow prairies, 
is of the glossy blackness of tar, and when wet, is nearly 
of the consistence and quite as sticky as tar. When rubbed 

in tannin, and as a fuel wood is not surpassed. It would no doubt, when large 
enough,prove a beautiful timber for cabinet work. 



86 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

in the hand it is of a sleek and unctuous feel, and has not a 
trace of sand. It is the very creme de la creme of fertility. 
It has a capacity for resisting drought beyond that of all 
other lands. When the croj)s on adjoining lands are with- 
ering under the scorching sun, they still laugh with mer- 
riment on the hog-wallow prairie. They are difficult to 
reduce to cultivation ; but once subdued, they remain sub- 
dued. No soil is then more tractable or handsomely be- 
haved, provided it is not meddled with when wet. 

How shall we account for these small-pox depressions, 
and the enormous fertility of the hog-wallow prairie ? I 
believe that they were once marshes, in which the warm 
sun and the constantly increasing fertility stimulated a 
great rankness of vegetation. They were alive with rep- 
tiles and aquatic fowls. They are always in depressions, 
and never in a position not favorable to this theory. When 
marshes are drained, the exposed surface is always found 
covered with swellings and depressions, resulting from 
currents, the accumulation of vegetable matter in heaps, 
and from other causes. In the process of drying, under 
the hot sun, the earth shrinks and cracks, and the irregu- 
larities are multiplied by the soil washing into and filling 
up these openings. They therefore for along time present 
precisely the same uneven appearance as the hog-wallow, 
prairie. The soil is also rich and black with decayed vege- 
tation, free from sand and unctuous to the feel ; and if the 
drained marsh happens to be in a country having the same 
mineral ingredients as Western Texas, the soil would be 
in all respects precisely that of the hog- wallow prairie. In 
course of time the marshes were gradually filled up by the- 
accumulated rotted matter of their own vegetation and the 
drift from the hills, and the hog- wallow prairie was the 
result. If this is not the true theory of their formation, 
I am at a loss to know what is. 

Here then we have the explanation of this enormous 



TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 87 

fertility, extending many feet below the surface — perhaps 
fifties and hundreds. Its glossy blackness is nothing but 
rotted reeds, immense palmate leaves, and myriads of other 
aquatic plants, with their thick net-work of roots, com- 
minuted into an impalpable powder, retaining all the ele- 
ments of which the plants were composed. This of itself 
,is the very rankness of fertility, but the neighboring hills 
and uplands have increased it by discharging into it, with 
every heavy shower, their finest particles, with a great store 
of carbonate of lime from their decomposing rocks. In- 
deed, the soil of these prairies is so thoroughly infiltrated 
with lime that it is a marl — a humo-calcareous marl, or 
the richest marl that possibly can exist. Its remarkable 
capacity for withstanding drought is the result of the 
absorbent and retentive nature of the materials of which 
it is composed ; for both humus and lime attract moisture 
from the atmosphere and retain it ; in other words, they 
bring copious showers to themselves which come sparingly 
elsewhere. With deep plowing and faithful stirring of the 
surface, so as to prevent the formation of a crust, it is not 
probable that crops on these prairies could be seriously in- 
jured by the most prolonged drought likely to be seen in 
Western Texas. 

I have said that the hog- wallow is of a sticky nature. 
It sticketh closer than a brother. Let one attempt to 
walk across a plowed field after a shower. It accumulates 
upon his shoes until they have become of such prodigious 
weight that he can hardly drag one foot after another ; and 
it continueth to accumulate and stick, until at last the 
wearied wayfarer is relieved by its falling off by its own 
weight — only to see the huge following renewed after a 
few steps. It is the same with vehicles travelling a road 
over a hog-wallow prairie in wet weather ; only more so, 
as there is greater space for the huge heap to accumulate 
upon. Even in dry weather, it is extremely disagreeable, 



88 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

travelling over these prairies in a carriage, there being a 
continual bound and jolt, as the wheels sink into and rise 
out of the depressions. 

Just at dark I rode into Lockhart, the capital of 
Caldwell County, and passed the night. 



VIII. / 

LOCKHAKT. 

WHEN the first rays of the sun were sparkling in 
the dewdrops on the live-oak leaves, I arose and 
stepped abroad 'for a morning walk in Lockhart. It is an 
engaging little cluster of residences and country stores, 
churches and academies, cosily built, and an air of gentil- 
ity pervades it. Its population is less than a thousand, 
nearly all Americans, doubtless from the older agricultural 
districts of the South. Its situation is picturesque ; with 
broad, open prairie, here and there waving with green 
chaparral; with stately forest, and sloping hill crowned 
with forest, around it or in the background. The yards 
and gardens show taste and cultivation, and it at once 
strikes me as the capital community of a polite people. 
I know not how it is, but it marked a very pretty little 
place in my memory, and I often recall it and think of it 
with pleasant thoughts. It has written ujwn me the im- 
pression that it is a sweet, placid, quiet little community, 
where every one loves his neighbors, and is by them be- 
loved ; where the sammer nights are melodious with the 
mocking-bird, and peace reigns ; where boys cannot grow 
up rowdies, and where girls blossom into sweet and per- 
fect womanhood, to make some good fellow's home happy. 
I can hardly account for it, for my stay was not long and 
my acquaintance limited, and yet such are the lines that 
Lockhart wrote on my mind and memory. Sweet be its 
cradled slumbers ! * 

* Since my visit, Lockhart, in confirmation of these good impressions, has 



90 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

Her peculiar physical features are the magnificent groves 
of live-oak, in which she sits embowered, and the remarka- 
ble outburst of springs at her feet. The live-oaks are 
among the most stately of the race, spreading their hori- 
zontal, thickly-foliaged boughs over a wide area, and have 
a strange appearance of veneration from the long grey moss 
that hangs from every limb, like the beard of a patriarch. 
They are so numerous that they conceal the village until 
one has entered it. They make a glorious shade, and 
I judge that Lockhart must be a sweet retreat in sum- 
mer, for its shady walks. The springs are a dozen or 
more, all bold and strong, of the purest water, bursting 
out within a small space in a noble grove. They quickly 
unite their waters and send a dashing, singing brook away, 
down a green and shaded dell. They gurgle up from 
deep fountains in the sandstone, and their deliciously cool 
water supplies the whole community. 

I chatted with the gentlemen of Lockhart several hours, 
because I liked the climate and other things, obtaining 
whatever information I could of their noble country in an 
unobtrusive way. They seemed to take much interest in 
me from the fact that I liked the country, and pressed me 
with courtesies to stop some days, and ride with them over 
parts I had not seen and would not see on my route. It 
makes me pleased with myself to have received such vol- 
untary courtesies from a people whom I highly respect. I 
was sorry I could not stay, but they told me that in their 
county are several sulphur and chalybeate springs, and 
one of alum, all in charming localities and needing only 
capital to make them popular resorts. They spoke of a 
deep vale in which pure soda accumulates in great quan- 
tity. As for iron, they thought their ^' Iron Hills " had 
enough to furnish all the railways of Texas. They spoke 

refused by a large majoritj' of the vote of her citizens, to allow tippling shops 
on her streets. When I heard of it I could but exclaim, " It is just like her ! " 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 91 

of their neighboring town of Prairie Lea as a charming 
little community, situated in a country unexcelled for 
beauty and fertility. Indeed I do not hesitate to say that 
Caldwell County is one of the best regions of Texas, in 
land, beauty and people. The people in their character 
seem to partake of the gentleness and amenity of the 
scenery in which they live. 

Wealth Undeveloped. — West Texas Scenery. 

It was ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th of Janu- 
ary, when I resumed my journey, riding nearly southward. 
I rode over a hog-wallow prairie five or six miles, dotted 
with numerous farms. All of this was the great valley of 
the little Plum Creek, which I now crossed, and the scene 
instantly changed. Full twenty miles I rode over a great 
prairie, consisting of an accumulation of swells and undu- 
lations of the most graceful outlines. The mesquite brush 
grew upon them in thin and scattering clusters, inevitably 
predicting the day when the chaparral shall possess them 
all. They are the messengers of the great army that is 
advancing. Occasional ravines wind among them in tor- 
tuous courses, containing no streams but many deep pools 
of the clearest and sweetest water, being principally rain- 
water caught from the hills. The rich curly mesquite 
grass was in complete possession, with its beautiful, smooth 
carpet of pea-green. Thousands of cattle and horses were 
visible everywhere, and an occasional flock of sheep cov- 
ered the hills. For ten miles there was a gradual but 
steady ascent, until I felt myself lifted far toward the 
clouds. Then I stood upon an eminence from which I 
beheld the vast country for many miles to the west, east 
and south. It was a prospect of singular beauty : the 
graceful swells and rolling undulations all about and be- 
low me ; the winding ravines and flashing pools, and long 
lines of dark, distant forest in every direction except the 



92 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

north, whither the swells and undulations grew higher 
and higher until lost in the distance. Then followed ten 
miles of easy, almost imperceptible descent. It was a 
great backbone or ridge separating two great systems of 
drainage, and the eminence upon which I halted was the 
apex. 

Not a human dwelling in all this twenty miles : noth- 
ing but strolling herds and an occasional traveller to enjoy 
all this glorious beauty ! And why should this be ? This 
country is all positively rich, except rare occasions where 
the rock pushes itself too near the surface. The soil is of 
that rich calcareous sort which produces the best devel- 
opment of wheat, aud the climate is exactly that in which 
it ripens best. In addition to their linfe, the rocks con- 
tain a considerable per centage of magnesia — a condition 
all the more favorable. In the dry atmosphere, no dan- 
ger from rust here. No danger from drought here, be- 
cause the crop will mature and be gathered in May, a 
month or more before the summer droughts set in. 

No timher, says one, for fences or houses ! That is a 
fact, and until there is easy access to the great forest belts 
and the pineries of the east, this magnificent country is 
destined to remain fruitless, except as the feeding ground 
of thousands, perhaps millions of animals. And yet there 
is abundant stone to be quarried from the hillsides, a ma- 
terial beautiful and durable for both house and fence. It 
is a costly and slow process, says one. I admit it, and yet 
if I should dwell in this country, I would have my fences 
and houses only of stone. 

Water supply uncertain : suppose the pools in the ravines 
should dry up ? says another. That is a contingency easily 
provided against, by building a stout dam across any of the 
ravines. Perpetual lakes may thus be formed, from which 
irrigation may be practiced, and they may be stocked with 
trout and other fish. I am sure the day will come when 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 93 

all of this will be done, and this region, now considered al- 
most valueless, will be filled with prosperous farmers, ship- 
ping rich argosies of wheat and many other products to 
other lands. The Almighty never intended so beautiful 
and interesting a country for the sole occupancy of dumb 
brutes. As for health, it seems quite impossible for one in 
such an atmosphere as this, to be sick. Such spaces as 
these, equally beautiful and equally fertile, are of common 
occurrence all over Western Texas.* 

The Jackass Eabbit. 

While passing over this great unoccupied space, I saw 
frequently a singular creature, which seemed a cross be- 
tween a jackass and a common hare ; yet I must confess 
that the resemblance is remote except in the exceedingly 
elongated ears, wherein it is very striking. For this reason 
he is called the mule-eared, or more commonly, the jackass 
rabbit. In other points he is precisely the same as the com- 
mon hare, except that he is twice as long, more than twice 
as high, and the white of his belly extends upward and covers 
a large part of his tlanks. Their ears are also tipped with 
white, and while sitting still they keep them moving up and 
down, as the butterfly does his wings when sitting on a 
flower. They are graceful as a doe, quite as nimble and fleet, 
and pretty to look upon as they bound over the prairie. 
They are so swift and strong that no dog but the greyhound 
can overtake them, and it puts even his speed to the severest 
test. An old gentleman, moving from Tennessee, tells a 
tale on his dog, which, he said, had never been known to 
fail to pick up a common hare when he once got in sight of 
him. One day, while encamped with his wagons, a jackass 
rabbit jumped up within ten feet of his dogV nose. That 

* These great unoccupied spaces belong mostly to the State and railroad 
companies to whom they have been donated by the State. The State holds all 
her lands at $1.25 per acre ; but the railroads and private persons will generally 
sell these lands for much less. 



94; TWO THOUSAN^D MILES li^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

worthy, with a yelp of joy, claimed him as his own, and 
bounded after him over a smooth and beautiful prairie, on 
whicb was nothing to obstruct the sight. He followed 
bravely about two hundred yards, then suddenly stopped 
and gazed strangely at the retreating hare. Then he drop- 
ped his tail, hung his head and returned with an abashed 
air to camp, evidently acknowledging that he was fur 
once magnificently vanquished. Ever after that, when a 
jackass rabbit appeared in sight, Towser looked at him and 
whined, but could not be induced to pursue. It is said that 
no dog, except the greyliound, after becoming acquainted 
with them, will bother his head at all about them. They 
inhabit exclusively where the curly mesquite grows, and are 
seldom or never seen where it is not. They are usually fat, 
for rabbits, and when well cooked make a decidedly savory 
morsel. He is undoubtedly the top-sawyer of all the rab- 
bit race. 

The Saiv' Marcos. 

Having descended the slope of ten miles, I found that 
the dark line of forest, which had so long attracted my 
eye, was the timber of the San Marcos. Where my road 
reached the river it did not cross it, but so much was I 
taken with its exquisite beauty, that like a truant school- 
boy, I idled some time on its banks. It is more limpid 
and crystal than even the blue Colorado, and I could 
see the lazy cat-fish lolling about, the gaudy perch, mo- 
tionless, but fanning his sides with his fins, and the 
trout darting like silver arrows hither and thither. Now 
it rolls swiftly, leaping and foaming over rocks and peb- 
bles, filling the forest with the murmur of falls ; and now 
it steals along with a scarcely perceptible current, in pools 
of profound depth, whose silence is only disturbed by the 
leaping of the sporting fishes above the surface. So beau- 
tiful was it, that, dead of winter as it was, I felt an almost 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 95 

irresistible impulse to plunge and bathe in its sparkling 
water. A dense forest of pecans, elms, wild-peach, and a 
hundred other varieties of timber, shaded it, frequently so 
locking their boughs above as to leave scarcely an opening 
for the sunlight ; and squirrels chattered, and birds of 
brilliant plumage twittered or sang in the boughs. It 
seemed to me the sweetest and purest stream I had ever 
beheld — the very semblance of innocence with pleasure ; 
the sparklingest, the gayest, the laugh ingest. 

A singularity of this beautiful river is that it bursts 
up suddenly from the earth, in one gigantic, glorious 
fountain, and starts forth a full-fledged river from its 
birth. No drought affects it. When neighboring streams 
sicken and pine and die under the withering sun, it glides 
merrily,or steals through its silent pools, with the same 
volume — rendered all the more chaste and beautiful from 
the fact that no sediment from the hills is mingled with 
its water. This great fountain, with its dancing and 
bursting mounds and pyramids of water, is probably the 
largest and most beautiful in the world. 

The length of the river in direct course, is less than a 
hundred miles, and the fall in that distance is quite a 
thousand feet. Were it not for its sinuosities, it would 
fly over the inclined plane with swiftness rivalling the 
flight of the arrow ; but even with these, one can scarcely 
ride a mile along its banks without discovering a mag- 
nificent water power — all unutilized — except at long in- 
tervals by the simplest grist-mill. What an enormous 
power is here waiting on man's good time ! The vallev is 
usually two to three miles in width, with soil as rich as 
that of any of the grand rivers of Texas. It is a black 
loam, charged with vegetable matter, and exceedingly 
mellow under the plow. The river continually shifts sides 
as it passes ^long — now sweeping against the butting cliffs 
on one side, and now hurrying across the valley to sweep 



96 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 

against the butting cliffs on the other. This offers a great 
facility to irrigation ; and thongh not a single irrigation 
ditch exists in all the valley, there is not one foot of it 
that might not be irrigated at trifling cost. I am bound 
to think, in view of the intelligent people who inhabit the 
vale, that they do not irrigate because it is unnecessary ; 
and yet I know that, let their crops be ever so well with- 
out it, they would be ever so much better with it. The 
noble soil, being fed with all the moisture it wants, would 
repay the kind treatment with crops of such luxuriance 
that the owner and the passer-by would be filled with as- 
tonishment and admiration. A mere rough dam of stone 
here and there would do the job. 

This river reminds me, in its vale and the lofty,rolling 
country that looks upon it, very much of the Mohawk in 
the State of New York ; a river that rolls through the 
mightiest community in America ; yet the San Marcos far 
surpasses it in width and fertility of valley, as well as the 
sparkling beauty of its waters. Suppose the seasons of the 
Mokawk were as capricious as the seasons of the San Mar- 
cos are, or have been reputed to be ; myriads of irrigation 
ditches would checker its valley, and its current would be 
checked every half hour with dams. The Mohawk would 
bloom infinitely beyond what it blooms now ; but bloom it 
never so richly, it would be as nothing to the bloom of the 
San Marcos with the same treatment. That river now 
supports thousands of factories and hundreds of beautiful 
cities. The San Marcos could beat it ten to one, and give 
it half-dozen to one in the game. If I could look forward 
and see one hundred years hence, I would see the San 
Marcos far greater than the Mohawk now is. Perhaps 
this may be much sooner than a hundred years. If spirits 
may revisit the glimpses of the moon, this is one spot I 
surely shall revisit. 

I rode eight or ten miles up the eastern bank, the more 



TWO THOCSAXD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 97 

admiring, as I advanced, the numerous pretty farms by the 
wayside as well as the river and the natural scenery. At 
last I forded to the west side and approached a thick settle- 
ment of farms when the sun was low. I stopped in front 
of the most spacious dwelling, and asked for lodging for 
the night. The old gentleman, in shirt-sleeves, was ad- 
justing his roses and vines in the yard. He did not reply 
instantly, and I repeated my request. He looked at me 
and said : *' Nix fuste !" I then pointed to the red, low 
sun, then to his spacious white house, and tapping my 
horse on the neck, pointed also to his spacious stables and 
barns. He shook his head, and again said : "Nix fuste." 
A fair-haired German lassie now came to my rescue from 
the house, and acted as my interpreter. The old gentle- 
man, I could perceive, did not want me to tarry, but I 
could also perceive that the fair-haired lassie was pleading 
for me. The old gentleman relented, after surveying me 
closely, and the lassie invited me to dismount and go in. 
My horse was pleasantly stored away, and so was I. The 
lassie was the only one of the family who could talk Eng- 
lish, and we ran on greatly before the old folks till a late 
hour. They had not long been in the country. I asked 
her how she liked the San Marcos as compared with the 
Faderland ? " Oh, beautiful ! " said she ; " the Rhine is 
good, but San Marcos is better." I asked her how she 
liked the American boys, as compared with the boys of 
Faderland? "Oh they are good," said she, "and I do 
love the American ladies." And so do I. In fact, I love 
all ladies. I slept. 
5 



IX. 



Some Reflections. 

I PAID the old gentleman his fee of two dollars, and 
bade him and his fair-haired lassie good-bye before the 
sun had yet looked into the valley, though kissing the hills 
and the tips of the forest with his kisses. I mention the 
old gentleman's fee because it points a difference in the 
general German character and the general American char- 
acter in Texas. The traveller, if he look and behave like 
a gentleman, who stops with an American by the wayside 
at night, will usually be sent on his way the next morning 
rejoicing, without exaction of fee, unless he happens to 
stop with one who makes a practice of entertaining stran- 
gers ; then he will be charged lightly, and sometimes 
heavily enough. I presume this comes less from hospi- 
tality than pride, and the dread of being looked upon as a 
tavern-keeper ; and they would rather have less money 
than wound the one or incur the other. The German on 
the other hand does not bother his head in the least about 
pride or tavern-keepers ; his chief consideration is thrift, 
and to add a few cents to his treasury in an honest way. 
He has nothing to give away, of his abundance or little. 
"What he eats and what he sleeps on cost him labor and 
money, and he will share none of these with strangers 
without an equivalent, with good, profitable interest be- 
sides. Therefore he is always prosperous and on gaining 
ground. He is right, and I applaud him for it. The 
American does not watch so closely the chances to collect, 



TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS OS HOIISEBA CK. 99 

and despises driblets ; therefore, he as a class is not so 
prosperous. I think my entertainment at the old gentle- 
man's house was worth two dollars to me, though probably 
I did not cost him ten cents ; and I like him rather the 
better because he charged it. He will leave his children 
well to do ; and if they have brains, and I am sure the 
fair-haired lassie has, they will have a chance to employ 
and enjoy them, to their own and their neighbors' profit. 
A condition which compels us to be always looking out 
for first necessities, is destructive to intellect and civiliza- 
tion ; and many a bright flower has blushed and died 
unseen from this hard necessity. 

And yet the American is generally thrifty enough to 
charge a wayfarer who does not look like a gentleman, if 
he will take him at all ; because he does not care whether 
such a fellow thinks him a tavern-keeper or not, and is 
willing to take all he has. And the American ladies, when 
their husbands are not about, will invariably stick it on 
heavily, and sometimes cruelly. While travelling through 
the country,! avoid the women as much as possible when 
it comes to settling bills ; for though I like to pay my way, 
I detest being gouged. I think if the husbands would 
give their ladies more pocket change, they would not act 
in this shameful way. It is carrying good sense to a 
shameful extreme. 

Speculatioi^-s about Mesquite Grass. 

As I ride along, the country is very similar to that east 
of the San Marcos, save that the prairie is not so elevated, 
the undulations more gentle, and there are extensive 
table-lands, as level as a parlor floor, and more gaudily 
dressed in natural carpeting. There are also many beau- 
tiful, isolated groves of live-oak, and many of the mes- 
quites are trees. Farms and ranches are very sparse — 
just enough to give the country the appearance of not 



100 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

being totally uninhabited. At noon I halted on a table- 
land which overlooks a wide circuit, tempted thereto by the 
charming prospect and the exceedingly abundant grass, on 
which I turned my horse loose with his hobbles ; I meantime 
reclining on a noble couch, of just that degree of compact- 
ness with softness that is most luxurious. I fancy it was 
on some such couch as this that Sire Adam and Madam 
Eve passed the nights, though I dare say she did decorate 
it with '^pansies, daffodils and violets blue." 

The grass here and all over this extensive prairie is the 
curly mesquite. There are several varieties of mesquite 
grass in Texas, inhabiting various localities, best suited 
to their various natures. They are all rich and sweet, but 
the curly mesquite, as I have said before, excels them all. 
So excellent is it that horses will keep as sleek as moles on 
it, without any other food whatever, and sheep will liter- 
ally turn to animated suet-balls. One may ride a thou- 
sand miles and maintain his horse in superb order without 
visiting a corn-crib, simply by giving him two hours at 
noon and the night to feed in. It grows in tufts, so thick- 
ly spread over the ground as to form a perfect carpeting, 
of delicate, tender blades, often a foot or more in length, 
usually much less, but so curled up as to give it the ap- 
pearance of only a couple of inches. In the spring and 
summer when it is green, nothing can be richer or prettier 
than this carpeting. It has the singular property of 
"curing " itself where it grows, and in the dead of winter, 
when apparently quite dead, it is richest and sweetest. 
It is then that animals like it best and seek it most 
eagerly. Cattle do not like it so much as horses and 
sheep ; they, from the structure of their mouths, pre- 
ferring the tall, coarser grasses, which they can twist 
their tongues around and jerk off. Its native habitat is 
the elevated prairie, and it seldom or never invades the 
forests or timbered bottoms. It gets its name from the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 101 

fact that it almost invariably accompanies the mesquite tree 
or chaparral. They seem to be inseparable companions. 
Where it possesses, it expels all other grasses. 

This grass is gradually spreading all over Western 
Texas. Where the taller and ranker grasses are tramped 
out and destroyed by the innumerable herds of cattle, the 
curly mesquite immediately appears, and permanently 
usurps the place. Whole counties, wliich a few years ago 
had little or none of it, are now blessed with it on every hill 
and prairie. It is tending eastward as well as all over the 
West, and the time will doubtless come when even the 
Houston Prairie will be adorned and further enriched by it. 
The tendency of the tall and rank grasses to die out and 
be superceded by the curly mesquite, when the country be- 
comes comparatively populous, causes me to think that the 
great cattle-growing district must gradually tend westward 
into the vast region beyond San Antonio. Indeed, this 
tendency is now at work, for herds of cattle are continually 
driven, even from this section, into that wild region. 
Sheep, hoi-ses and farms will occupy the ranges from which 
the cattle have been driven ; and wealth and civilization 
will be increased. But I do not mean to say that even 
then this part of Texas will not be a better cattle region 
than any other part of the United States outside of Texas; 
for the bottoms and the woodlands will still furnish ample 
provision for hundreds of thousands of cattle, and even if 
these fail, there is no end to the capacity of this country to 
produce corn and the cereal grasses to keep them fat. 

The Guadulupe. 

I had ridden but a short distance from my couch on 
the table-land, when another glorious scene burst upon me. 
It was a great valley, sleeping in the hazy distance, and 
reaching out of sight north and south. To the westward 
it seemed to have no limit, but rolled away like a great 



102 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

ocean. A dark line of forest followed its course, but 
occupied only the centre of the valley. At distant intervals, 
through openings in the forest, I could see a river flashing 
in the sunlight. The green of the valley was often re- 
lieved by black fields of newly plowed earth, and clusters 
of buildings were numerous. It was not long before 
I rode into the valley and stood upon the banks of the 
Guadalupe. 

I wenc quite into raptures over the San Marcos, and [ 
should go into much greater raptures here, for the Guadn- 
lupe is simply an unabridged edition of the San Marcos, 
carrvino^ about three or four times its bulk of water. It is 
in all other respects the same : the same limpidity ; the same 
deep and silent pools, and the same sparkling rapids. The 
valley is wider, and of the same fertility. This river is three 
or four hundred miles long, and from its source to its mouth 
sweeps through a terrestrial paradise — a country that has 
not its match except in Texas, for beauty and sweet amen- 
ity of scenery. Half its course is among mountains, then 
rolling uplands, and then the level plains upon the Gulf of 
Mexico, and everywhere, except in the latter, its wide val- 
leys are projected far below the general surface. 

I crossed the river on a ferry and rode two hours along 
its bank, at no time, I think, out of sight of plantations 
and farms. Cedar abounds in the locality, for very many 
of the fences are constructed wholly of it. 



DIVISION 11. 



I. 



New Braunfels. 

IAREIVED at this place in the night, and slept soundly 
— not the heavy sleep of fatigue, but the refreshing 
slumber that follows a day of pleasant activity, in which 
the faculties of mind and body have alike been engaged. 

I arose before the sun and walked on a tour of observa- 
tion. I seemed to have been transported over seas in my 
sleep, and to have awaked in a strange land. All the faces 
I saw were foreign, and I heard nothing but a foreign lan- 
guage. The signs over the stores were foreign, and the 
farmers that thronged the streets w^ith their wagons, were 
all foreign, and spoke to their teams in a foreign tongue. 
Here is a city of six or seven thousand people, so nearly all 
German that the exceptions are rare and 'singular. It 
was founded by a romantic German nobleman, the Count 
de Braunfels, in 1842, who here established a colony of 
his friends, which grew and grew, until the present pros- 
perous city and community are the result. When Texas 
became a part of the Great Republic, he returned to Ger- 
many, but his followers remained, smitten with the love of 
the beautiful and attractive land. The romantic castle 
in which he dwelt, apart from his followers, still looks from 
an eminence upon the city — itself hardly changed, but how 
changed the place upon which it looks ! Then a straggling 
cluster of gardens and little farms — now a bustling mart 



104 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

for a populous region around it, filled with rich merchants 
and manufacturers, editors, scientists and poets ! * 

It is not probable that the romantic Braunfels thought 
or dreamed to what the seed that he had planted would 
expand. Perhaps it was eccentricity and the love of ad- 
venture and novelty that drew him hither ; and so these 
were gratified, he thought little beyond. But I regard this 
as having greater possibilities and probabilities than any 
place in Texas, except Houston and Galveston. The future 
is pregnant of her. Nature seems to have shaped the lo- 
cality with the design that it should be no humble spot ; for 
she has poured out her favors from a too abundant horn. 
If Houston and Galveston may be the Liverpool and Lon- 
don of Texas, here she has intended to erect her Manches- 
ter, with industries less gigantic, but infinitely more varied. 
Here is a river with water absolutely as clear and brilliant 
as a diamond, falling forty-two feet in its three miles sweep 
about the town, with volume a hundred feet in breadth. 
Here is power more than enough for all the wheels of 
Manchester, and may by art be indefinitely increased. 
The manufacturer may look, from the upper stories of his 
mills, upon fields snow-white with cotton in its season, which 
the planter will deliver to him without freight and the 
burdens of the middle-man. He may look upon field after 
field golden with shafts of the ripened wheat, the best in 
the world for transportation in flour over the southern 
seas. From the same window he may behold, in the dis- 
tance, herds of sheep covering the hills or cropping the 
sweet herbage of the valleys, offering fleeces as fine as those 
from Saxony or Spain. He may behold cattle on a thou- 
sand hills ; and sweeping away into the blue distance, he 
sees forests on every hand, rich in timber for manufacture 

* The writer is thinking of Mr. Lindhiraer, long the editor of the New 
Braunfels Zeitung— an accomplished writer and sweet poet in his own tongue, 
and an enthusiastic botanist. He has done more for the Texas Flora than any 
one else, and many of its prettiest gems bear his name. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 105 

and fuel. Thus, the manufacturer of cotton and woolen 
goods ; he who fills argosies of flour for foreign lands, and 
he who works in leather and wood— all have before them 
here, stores of the raw material which are inexhaustible, 
and an empire around them eager to absorb the products 
of their skill. In addition to all of these, is a climate so 
pure and healthful that it is positively delicious : airs that 
have gone forth with all of Nature's blessings, not only to 
preserve but bestow health ; a climate rarely cold and 
never sultry. The city sits on an elevation above all the 
region south, and the splendid Gulf breezes strike her full 
in the face. The artisans may labor summer and winter 
with open door and window, and drink health while they 
work. With all of this and these, and especially the great, 
clamorous empire around her, how can the colony of the 
romantic Braunfels refuse to be great, and thus cross 
Nature ? How can she decline to be the Manchester of 
Texas ? * 

In planting the thrifty and ingenious German here. 
Fortune played lieutenant to Nature, in assisting her 
plans. Braunfels is backed by that great people at home, 
for upon it she can draw for capital, labor and skill ad 
libitum. 

Already she treads the path of her destiny. Here is 
a woolen mill whose cassimers and blankets are sold all 
over the west, and recently they have invaded Broadway 
with success. Uncle Sam buys them for his Boys in Blue. 
Here are flouring mills, with capacity above the local de- 
mands, and the Braunfels saddles have grown famous. 
The vaquero, who rides like a Comanche, is not happy 
without a Braunfels ''tree." And this is but the be- 
ginning. 

The city is built of limestone and cedar, and to add 

* The exceeding, sparkling purity of the Comal water makes it unequalled for 
the calico and paper manufacturer. 

5* 



106 TWO THOUSAND MILES II^T TEXAS ON HORSEBACS:. 

that it is neat and comely would be unnecessary after 
mentioning its German people. The Germans have es- 
tablished many noble communities in Texas, but this is 
the crown of them all. It grows apace, but when it has a 
railroad, it will step forth with the tread of a giant. Want 
of cheap and rapid communication with other communi- 
ties is all that retards it. 

Westward an"d Poesy. 

After breakfast — at which native wine, in pUice of cof- 
fee, was offered me, if I preferred it, by the host from the 
Ehine — I called to see the livery-man and charged him to 
stuff my horse well until I should return ; and then leap- 
ing into an open carriage, drove into the west. 

What a beautiful, picturesque country is this about 
Braunfels ! And I cannot help admiring the exquisite taste 
of the romantic German nobleman, who preferred it above 
all other in its native beauty ! To the north the Creta- 
ceous hills lift their solid front, like a great rampart, 
trending to the west, and on a spur of this formation 
Braunfels sits and looks over all the region except the 
frowning rampart. To the east lie the forests of the great 
Guadalupe valley, eight or ten miles across ;* to the south 
and west the prairie rolls in undulations and swells of the 
smoothest outlines, adorned here and there with evergreen 
groves of live-oak. It is all rich — a black, oily soil, on 
which the fruits of the temperates, and cotton and the 
cereals jflourish side by side. Farms occupy indiscrimi- 
nately the winding vales, the undulations, the broad table- 
lands, and even climb over the lofty tumuli. It is, indeed, 
•'a lovely rural scene of various view," so that I found 
snatches of pastoral verse continually running through my 
mind. 

* The country between the Guadalupe and Cbmal is really one continuous 
valley. After the streams have united, the valley is narrower. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. 107 

"Delightful Wyoming ! beneath thy skies, 

The happy shepherd swaius had nought to do 

But feed their flocks on green declivities. 

Or skim perchance thy lake with light canoe, 

From morn till evening's sweeter pastime grew, 

With timbrel, when beneath the forest brown, 

Thy lovely maidens would the dance renew ; 

And aye those sunny mountains, half way down, 
Would echo flageolet from some romantic town. 

" Then where of Indian hills the daylight takes 

His leave, how might you the flamingo see 

Disporting like a meteor on the lakes — 

And playful squirrel on his nut-grown tree : 

And ever}'' sound of life was fuil of glee. 

From merry mock-birds' song, or hum of men ; 

While hearkening, fearing nought of revelry. 

The wild deer arched his neck from glades, and then, 
Unhunted, sought his woods and wilderness again." 

Had Campbell written from this spot he could nothaye 
given a more accurate description of the scenes around 
Braunfels. The '^ happy shepherd swains" — the "flocks 
on green declivities" — "the forests brown," the "lovely 
maidens" and "the sunny mountains" — the "romantic 
town " — are all accurate to tlie life. 'Tis true I see not 
the "lake" and the "light canoe ;" but not far roll the 
Comal and the Guadalupe, and who shall say that the 
light canoe is not skimming over their diamond waters ? 

The " flamingo ! " Here he is in troops and squadrons, 
marching over the prairie, and occasionally lifting his 
wings for a short flight; here " the playful squirrel on his 
nut-grown tree" — the pecan; the "merry mock-bird" 
pours his melody from every tree ; here the " wild deer 
unhunted ; " here his " woods and wilderness " — 

" And every sound of life is full of glee." 

The poet continues in the next verse : 

" And scarce had Wyoming of war and crime 
Heard, but in transatlantic story rung ; 
For here the exile met from every clime, 
And spake in friendship every distant tongue ; 
Men from the blood of warring Europe sprung, 



108 TWO THOUSAI^"D MILES IN TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 

Were but divided by the running brook ; 

And happy where no Rhenish trumpet sung, 

On plains no sighing mine's volcano shook, 

The blue-eyed German changed his sword to pruning-hook." 

Literal to the life — save the " war " only " in transat- 
lantic story rung ; " for most of the dwellers in Braunfels 
and around it, saw our own great war, and many of them 
participated in its thunder and carnage — a war the most 
tremendous in the world's annals, and which none could 
have fought but Americans enraged at each other. 

But to that last verse of Campbell. When I repeated 
it in my mind, it seemed unmistakable that his spirit, at 
least, hovered over these scenes when he wrote ; 

" Here the exile met from every clime 
And spake in friendship every distant tongue." 

For here is the Frenchman, the Pole, the '^free Switzer," 
the Englishman, the Spaniard, as -well as the American 
and German. And the blue-eyed German changing his 
Bword into pruning-hook, caps tlie climax of the descrip- 
tion. Truly, genius, like omnipresence, pervades every- 
thing ! Campbell and Braunfels will hereafter dwell in 
my mind together. 



two thousand miles in texas on hoeseback. 109 

My Cibolo. 

Passed the Cibolo — a river of great valley, prodigious 
channel, and no water. Into its banks the mighty Colo- 
rado would fit comfortably, and yet Cibolo here runs not a 
drop, but glares upon you with a rugged, arid, stony bot- 
tom. It is a desert in an oasis, its borders fringed with 
fertility and beauty. The lilies bend over from the edge 
of the oasis and look into the abhorrent desert below, 
and so do the willows. What a strange freak ! This is the 
death, the skeleton, the ghost of a river : nothing left but 
the bleached and grinning bones. Where has this river 
gone to ? Is it the Styx below, of which Homer and Vir- 
gil sang, and over which Charon paddles the shivering 
souls ? Shadow and grim desolation of a river, you are 
indeed a perplexity ! 

And yet there is water after all. Below me I perceive 
a dark, grizzly pool, which Jehu says is **deep as a pit ;" 
and above me I perceive another through the glimpses of 
the overhanging trees, which he says is '^ miles long, and 
can float a man of war." 

''And does this thing never run ?" said I. 

*' Like an ocean turned loose ! " said he. " Once I had 
to camp out on yan side three days and nights, waiting for 
it to run down. When it runs, it runs !" 

" And when it stops it stops ! " said I. 

"It does for a fact," said he ; ''it stops months at a 
time, and has been known to stop for years. And it is a 
comical river anyhow. Some miles above here, it is bold 
like the Comal ; then it gets sick and reels and staggers, 
and little by little disappears under ground ; and then 
miles below here, it comes out a big river again and hides 
no more. It is a comical river, the comicalest lever saw," 
added he with a laugh. 

Cibolo means buffalo, but I perceive no buffaloes here. 



110 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 



At the village of Selma " on jan side," we halted and drank 
some excellent beer. 

Continuation. 

A lofty, rolling country, consisting of great rounded 
swells after swells, like immense choppers on the ocean, 
after a roaring storm. No timber but mesquite, and 
mostly chaparral, except in the green vales, where labyrin- 
thine brooks wander and the live-oak spreads its broad 
boughs. The winds blow without rest. Occasionally the 
home of a ranchero is seen buried in the deep vales, as if 
shunning human society. Vale and tumuli are dressed in 
the beautiful mesquite grass, shoe-top deep, thicker than 
hair on a dog's back ; cattle, horses, sheep and goats look 
saucy from excess of good cheer. Occasionally a flock of 
a thousand of these latter pass the road before us, and 
look extremely saucy and independent as they bite off a 
bough and walk along. Generally a young Mexican and a 
dog or two follow these. The country is nearly all fer- 
tile. What grand crops of wheat, barley and oats might 
here be raised ! But live stock is too profitable, and the 
denizen thinks it is easier work, and he cares nothing for 
any more of these fruits of the earth than he and his 
family can devour. This grand country 
is a mine untouched. The air is purity 
itself. The scenery is varied and lovely. 
On the top of one of these immense 
tumuli, it is quite glorious to look over 
this great rolling ocean of green. 

Salado. 

To use the language of my Jehu, 
this is also a comical stream. If I should 
paint a portrait of it in map style, it 
etc., ad infinitum, would be as here presented. 




TWO THOUSAND MILES II!^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. Ill 

The light lines denote a pretty, babbling creek, and the 
heavy spaces, deep pools of bine, alive with perch, cat-fish, 
trout and snakes. Indeed this alternation of purling 
brook and deep, bine pool, is characteristic of the prairie 
streams of Texas. Even the little rill, creeping concealed 
nnder the tall grass, has these deep pools at short intervals, 
all filled with sport for the angler. Though the stream 
may often cease to run, under the withering drought, these 
pools never flag, but have the same volume of sweet, clear 
water at all seasons. Does not tliis look like Providential 
design ? What hands wrought these deep, inexhaustible 
pools of pure, sweet water ? 

The Salado sports a wide valley, winding amid the over- 
looking tumuli and mesas, from which the rains drift into 
it their choicest mineral elements, mixed with the decaying 
grass and leaves of the prairie. The soil is thus charged 
with calcareous and vegetable matter, and is a black, mellow 
loam of amazing productiveness. My Jehu said that in 
spring time he could actually hear the crops grow as he 
passed them on the road. A dense forest of pecans, oaks 
and elms, the wild grape almost uniting them in one great 
arbor, conceals both stream and pool, and often obtrudes 
on the valley to the foot of the graceful swells. This 
valley is well settled, and the appearance of the buildings 
on the farms and haciendas, denotes a people prosperous 
and quite refined. Their houses are all of white lime- 
stone, and their fences invariably cedar or stone. 

Salado means salty, but I tasted no salt in its sweet, 
pure water. 

Across the Salado, the country falls — that is to say, it 
does not tower so loftily as between that stream and the 
Cibolo ; still, it is greatly elevated. The tumuli and un- 
dulations roll more smoothly, and there are wide spaces of 
level lands. From the top of these elevations, it is a sin- 
gular scene. Here rolls a chaparral so dense that a horse- 



112 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

man departing from the road is immediately hidden from 
sight. It extends inimitably, and every green bough is 
waving to the wind, which brings to my ear a sound, not 
unlike that of seas, continuous and indescribable. The 
glorious pea-green, velvety carpet of curly mesquite, looks 
as chaste as untrodden snow, and the soil, where exposed, 
is dark and rich. 

Chaparral Thoughts. 

A few years ago this was a vast, rolling prairie, with no 
growth but scattering trees of mesquite and isolated groves 
of live-oak. The chaparral has now possessed every foot, 
and is crowding hither and thither. It forces its way by 
overwhelming numbers, and crushes, by smothering, what- 
ever opposes its advance. From the Rio Grande and be- 
yond, it has pushed its way in one grand phalanx. What 
is its purpose, and who has called it forth to this conquest ? 
These great armies do not move without a head. 

Many of the cattle men look upon it with aversion and 
curse it, in spite of its grateful shade and abundant beans. 
They say : " It is ruining our country for cattle. We can- 
not now see our cattle twenty feet where we could formerly 
see them for miles. It is now like hunting needles in hay- 
stacks ; although we admit that the grass is made far bet- 
ter than ever." Many of them have pulled up stakes and 
departed for regions where the chaparral does not exist, 
probably, in time, to be driven forth again. 

But I regard this invasion as one of singular beneficence, 
whose commander is the Grreat Architect. At His com- 
mand, the chaparral stepped forth to conquer, and to dis- 
pense blessings as it conquers. Already it has wrought a 
great change in the climate of Western Texas, and that 
change is becoming constantly more marked. By shading 
and cooling the earth, it has made it attractive to the clouds, 



TWO THOUSAJ^'D MILES IK TEXAS OJ?" HORSEBACK. 113 

and the rains come. Until late years, this region was sub- 
ject to prolonged and destructive droughts, in which crops 
died, rivers fainted and disappeared, and even the grass on 
the prairie was burnt to the roots. As the chaparral ad- 
vanced, these conditions abated, and simultaneously with 
its spreading over a great scope of country, they ceased 
entirely, and nowhere since then have the seasons been 
more equable as a rule. The farmer thanks God and plows 
his lands in the confidence of abundant crops, but does not 
suspect that the thorny chaparral is God's messenger to 
announce and work this change. 

Can this connection between the chaparral and the 
extinction of the droughts be accidental ? Not so. It is 
the natural and inevitable result of such agency. See 
how the enlightened Khedive^ has converted the deserts of 
Egypt into a blooming garden, by crowding them with 
living trees which drew the clouds I Should he cover the 
Great Sahara with a forest, he would convert that dread 
desolation into a garden also. Even in the desert it rains 
in the forest-covered oases. 

This new forest came unplanted and uninvited, so far 
as man's asrencv is concerned. It is the w^ork of Him that 
rules. To read the designs and plans of the Great Archi- 
tect is not mine or yours ; but that the chaparral is exe- 
cuting his plans, no one can question. It seems to me a 
building of this mighty Empire — '* prepare ye the way" — 
which I behold so grandly beautiful around me ; whose 
airs, if it is not sacrilege to say so, are as sweet as the airs 
of Heaven. It converts Western Texas from a wilderness 
to a populous hive of industry ; it makes her the noblest 
and most blessed land on earth. Thorny Chaparral, I 
touch my h^ to you as the messenger of Him who rules, 
and loves, and works ! You are the messenger to an- 
nounce the tread of the coming Giant ! 



II. 

Sak Antokio. 

FIVE or six miles through the ranks of the great in- 
vader, our carriage halted on a lofty eminence, from 
which a glorious view burst upon us. It is San Antonio, 
a city of twenty thousand people — the place where the 
famous battle of the Alamo was fought— where Crockett 
fell. It sits in a wide and deep amphitheatre, whose 
northern wall is the Cretaceous mountains, and the 
rounded tumuli and undulations of the prairies slope 
down to it from the west and east. Through this amphi- 
theatre meanders a river, bending hither and thithei', as if 
it desired to kiss every foot of ground, whose course is 
marked by tall timber. Along the banks of this river and 
stretching out widely over the amphitheatre, nestles the 
city, half concealed in the wealth of green foliage; its 
white stone houses glittering like glass and marble in the 
declining sun, and contrasting strikingly with the wealth 
of deep green. Tall spires and stately edifices rise here 
and there above the rest and the green foliage. The scene 
is so charming that I feel half afraid to proceed, lest the 
charm may vanish as I approach. Involuntarily I thought 
of Constantinople, but I repulsed the thought.* 

It was night when we stopped in front of a fine stone 
hotel, where Jehu was paid off and dismissed. 

Does it come up to the rosy picture which it paints of 

* Famous for its splendid appearance at a distance, and for dogs and bones 

within. 



TWO tkousa:^d miles in texas o:n" horseback. 115 

itself on the eye of him who beholds it from that hill ? After 
two days' delay, I cannot say that it does ; and yet it is a 
weird and winning place. Two rivers wind through it, San 
Antonio and San Pedro — St. Antony and St. Peter — both of 
sky-blue water, and hundreds of canals unite their waters ; 
so that there is hardly a street which has not its running 
stream.' Shade trees, bananas, fig-trees, flowers and creep- 
ing vines abound, and many of the residences are almost 
completely hidden under bowers. In spring, summer and 
autumn, when these bowers are gaudy with myriads of va- 
riegated blooms and purple grapes, alive with humming 
birds, and the breezes laden with perfume and kept cool by 
the running streams that sparkle as they run, I can well im- 
agine it a place of great delight. The structures are nearly 
all of white blocks of stone, many of them imposing and 
some palatial ; but too frequently the unsightly hovels, the 
memorials of the feeble race that is giving place to the strong 
one, sit side by side with these splendid structures, and 
mar the scene. There are three large public squares, and 
a cathedral as large, if not larger than any in the United 
States ; but the streets are narrow and ill-paved, and the 
two rivers and its wealth of foliage are its chief glory to 
the eye. These rivers leap from the earth in gigantic 
fountains ; the San Pedro from two in the city, and the 
San Antonio from a hundred, two miles above the city. 
These fountains and the seats of them are all a glory. 
Those of San Pedro burst up in a noble grove of elms, the 
property of the city, supplied with rustic chairs and 
benches, and here, almost every summer evening, the city 
discharges her gay throngs, who pass the hours in prom- 
enade or the waltz and quadrille. Those of the San Anto- 
.nio burst forth under bowers of vine and in nooks that are 
suggestive of fairies. Labyrinthine walks lead under 
bowers from nook to nook, and are here extremely sugges- 
tive of youthful hearts and the first whisperings of love. 



116 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

I dare say tbat there is many a couple in San Antonio, and 
even at a great distance, whose first vows were spoken 
along these labyrinthine walks and in these nooks. Above 
the fountains rise the majestic Cretaceous hills, with their 
green slopes and forests of oak and cedar. 

Mixed. 

I have never seen a population so mixed, and on this 
point I will match San Antonio against the world, giving 
all other places a big start in the game. I chatted to-day 
with a stalwart Bedouin of the Desert, a bronzed giant ; 
studied the physique of a coal-black Australian ; and a 
Greek from the Acropolis quoted, within my hearing, 
sonorous verses from Homer, at the fountains of the San 
Pedro. The San Antonians say that there are people here 
from every race in the world, except the Lap and the Es- 
quimaux. Of the twenty thousand population they assign 
one-third to the Americans, one-third to the Germans 
and Sclaves, and one-third to the Mexicans and French, 
with batches to every other race under the sun, except the 
unappreciative Lap and Esquimaux. The negro is here, 
but they allow him no place in the estimate. This is a 
remarkable filigree work. Some writer attributes the rest- 
less, undaunted push of the Americans to the mingling and 
effervescence of the various bloods in their veins. If the 
theory is correct, San Antonio should be the epitome of all 
the restless energy of the American nation. In a few years 
its youths will not be able to tell what: blood dominates in 
their veins. The young San Antonian will be the epitome 
of all the races of the world. If the city shall not then 
prove itself a magazine of enterprise, the theory of the 
writer just mentioned will be cruelly exploded. 

Of these races the American and the German seem to 
affiliate and coalesce naturally, while the Mexicans gravi- 
tate mostly toward the French and other Latin races. I 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 11? 

could not hear of a single marriage between German and 
Mexican, and such instances are very rare between 
American and Mexican, while close quarters between the 
latter and other races seem quite common. 

Society. 

There is much of it that is excellent. Indeed this 
whole region seems to have an attractiveness to the 
better class of people. There is something in the air and 
scenery that is congenial to these, and favorable to the 
development of intellectual and moral refinement. The 
people drink it from the heavens and become filled with it, 
as Una on the mossy bank was by the sunbeam. I dare 
say the peculiar meteorological and physical features of his 
country had much to do with the remarkably refined devel- 
opment of the ancient Grecian ; and his land is a Mecca 
to people of that class yet, though in ruins and but the 
shadow of what it was. It seems that the first American 
settlers of San Antonio were shoots of the best classes of 
the older States, and their families have been continually 
recruited from the same class, while Germany and Spain 
have freely sent their contributions. Its population is 
much swelled in winter by well-to-do people from the 
east, seeking a genial climate ; in summer, by the fam- 
ilies of the planters and others from the alluvial 
*^ bottoms," and at all seasons by the best and wealthiest 
people of Mexico, whose frequent revolutions have driven 
them into temporary exile. Churches and schools abound 
here. I doubt if there is a city on the continent which 
can show a more varied and interesting society of the better 
class, or which holds a larger proportion to the whole. 

The Verge. — Whence She Prospers. 

This city sits on the verge of civilization. To him 
who enters it from the west, it opens the gate to the bus- 



118 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

tling, populous American world ; and he who departs from 
it to the west, enters a wilderness. It is true that the 
daring stock-man has pushed his wigwam and tent a 
hundred miles further, and there are a few villages scat- 
tered widely apart, but it is a wilderness nevertheless, tra- 
versed frequently by murderous bands of savages, and 
the hiding-place of worse bandits from every country. 
Through this wilderness, a great valley of thickets, you 
may penetrate five hundred miles to the Sierras of Mexico. 
Across it the two great tides of American civilization, the 
Anglo-Saxon and the Iberian, stand front to front, the one 
sullen and retreating, and the other aggressive and advan- 
cing. The Anglo-Saxon tide has pushed its avant-couriers 
to the banks of the Rio Grande, on the other side of which 
the rear-guard of the Iberian stands watching, oppressively 
conscious of the fate that awaits him. To the north-west 
and south-west it is equally a wilderness, while in all 
other directions lies a great territory very sparsely settled. 
San Antonio then is a great torchlight in the midst of a 
wilderness, and it may well perplex the stranger to conceive 
whence she drew her irradiation and opulence, and how 
she prospers. 

A look at the map readily solves this riddle ; for though 
she sits in a wilderness, and on the edge of ^^ the waste 
howling," yet the region that is tributary to her wealth is 
enormously vast ; and though the populations are sparse, 
yet in the aggregate they are large. She supplies not only 
all Texas, west and north and northwest of her, with all 
the fabrics her people consume, and all the delicacies they 
enjoy, but she reaches out her arms into central Mexico and 
distant Chihuahua, seven hundred miles away, and draws 
into her lap a flood of silver and gold. She receives and dis- 
tributes and levies contributions upon every pound of wool, 
every hide, and every nugget of ore that is raised, grown or 
produced in this enormous region. Every Mexican bandit 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 119 

is indebted to her for the pistol, blade and ammunition at 
his belt ; every ranchero for the saddle on which he rides, 
for the covering on his body, and the dram with which he 
clears his throat in the morning ; every damsel for her 
silks and ribbons and slippers, her cologne and pomatums, 
and the pen, ink and paper with which she despatches her 
love missives. All of this makes a peculiar and gigantic 
trade, in w^iicli tlie profits are large and certain ; and when 
we take it well in mind, we cease to wonder at this torch- 
light in the wilderness — her splendid emporiums and pal- 
atial homes. Through this traffic many of her citizens 
have built large wealth, beginning on nearly nothing. 

Her Past. 

San Antonio is one of the most venerable of American 
things. She was founded in 1692 by Franciscan friars 
from France, who here established themselves to introduce 
civilization and Christianity among the Indians — a work in 
which they seem to have had but indifferent success. 
Their great churches or " missions," filled with dormitories, 
still stand, in an excellent state of preservation, and the 
candles lighted on their altars at that day, are still burn- 
ing, and have never been allowed to be extinguished. In 
these churches there is some fine statuarv and ornamental 
work, showing that even in tliat remote day, artists of no 
small ability trod the soil of San Antonio. The churches 
were all built in enclosures of high, strong wall, with em- 
brasures for defensive weapons. They are below San An- 
tonio, on either side of the river, at intervals of a mile or so 
apart, and their names ^re La Purissima Concepcion, La 
Espada, San Jose, and San Juan, Their number and size 
indicate that the population about San Antonio in those re- 
mote days, must have been large — perhaps not less than it is 
now. If the records of these old monks could be obtained 
and translated, they would n^ake a most interesting chap- 



120 TWO thousa:?^© miles in texas on hokseback. 

ter in the history of Texas. It is little credit to the 
Legislature of the State that no step in this direction has 
ever been taken. 

In 1762, when Texas passed from the possession of 
France to that of Spain, San Antonio had grown in seventy 
years to a mixed population of two thousand French, 
Spaniards and Indians, Thus she began the mingling 
process at a remote day. Truly, " the way the twig is in- 
clined the tree will grow ! " At that time it was stated that 
the twenty head of cattle brought from France by the 
monks had increased to one hundred thousand ; and these 
were the ancestors of the Texas cattle. At this date they 
have increased to several millions. 

Battle-Scaeked. 

In the meantime furious battles had been fought be- 
tween the Europeans and the Indians for the possession of 
the beautiful country. The name — Espada — the "sword" 
— of one of the Missions, and their defensive walls and 
embrasures show that the olive branch did not exclusively 
reign over the domicils of tlie monks. They probably bore 
the cross in one hand and the arquebus in the other. 

After the junction with Spain and Mexico, war grew 
hotter and fiercer, and San Antonio was the centre of it. 
The Texans, now mostly Mexicans, raised the standard of 
revolt against Spain, and after a severe struggle captured 
San Antonio on the 4th of March, 1813. On the 4th of 
June following, eight thousand Spaniards and Mexicans 
attempted to retake the city, but were driven olf with ter- 
rible slaughter. On the 18th of A'ugust, the Spaniards 
again advanced ; the revolutionists marched out on the 
open plain to meet them ; were defeated ; some six hun- 
dred adventurous Americans among them Avere slain or 
captured, and the city was again in the hands of the Span- 
iards. Other Mexican States soon followed the example of 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 1:N^ TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 121 

Texas in revolt, and the Spaniards were at last driven out 
of all Mexico and Texas. 

The Texans — now mostly Americans — soon became rest- 
less, and revolted against Mexico. October 24, 1834, a 
fierce battle was fought around Purissima Concepcion, in 
which the Americans under Bowie and. Travis defeated 
the Mexicans and captured their cannons. In December, 
after a four days' fight in the streets of the city, the Mexi- 
cans were driven out and the Americans took possession. 
This was a terrible struggle, in which the city was well 
nigh battered to pieces, and was a fit prelude to the bat- 
tle of 

The Alamo, 

probably the most remarkable battle ever fought, which 
took place in February and March following. One hun- 
dred and eighty Americans, under Bowie and Travis, re- 
sisted, during thirteen days, six thousand Mexicans under 
Santa Anna, and fought until not one of their number was 
left to tell the tale. Here the renowned David Crockett 
fell fighting as a private soldier, apart from his companions, 
leaving nine dead Mexicans, as the story says, piled around 
his dead body. The State government has erected a 
monument to these stubborn heroes, on the Capitol grounds 
at Austin, on which their names are recorded with this in- 
scription, which has always seemed to me the most beauti- 
ful in monumental literature : 

" Thermopylas had her messengers of defeat : the 
Alamo had none." 

The Mexicans gathered their dead bodies and burned 
them on the sacred ground where they fell. 

Why did not these stubborn heroes retreat, seeing 
themselves so hopelessly over-numbered ? Had they done 
so, they would have saved the slaughter of five hundred 
heroes as brave as themselves — the commands of Fannin 
and Ward, who were overpowered and captured a few days 
G 



122 TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 

afterward, arid mercilessly shot down in cold blood, by 
Santa Anna's order, after they had surrendered. While 
applauding his matchless courage, history will probably 
condemn Travis for the useless slaughter of his brave 
band, whose devotion and heroism anything told in Gre- 
cian or Koman story can hardly equal. 

The old church or chapel of the Alamo, built in 1774, 
in and around which these terrible scenes occurred, still 
stands, though the wall which surrounded it has long since 
been torn away. Let it remain until its white stones have 
crumbled into dust! The citizens of San Antonio should 
adorn that plaza with monuments to Bowie, Travis and 
Crockett, and a tablet sacred to the memory of those who 
fell with them. 

Thus San Antonio has more history than any place 
on the American Continent. If told by some fine writer, 
it would live and charm forever, and make every foot of 
her a classic ground. 

Her Future. 

As the beautiful wilderness fills with people and be- 
comes the seat of varied industry, she must needs grow 
great. It will be impossible to dwarf her future, unless 
she be unnaturally supine. The great region in which 
she sits mistress, can build many populous cities. Her 
two rivers, with their wealth of power, invite her to man- 
ufactures, and it is singular that she has not already em- 
barked in some of these ; in particular, that she does not 
manufacture leather and shoes for all Texas, since the 
mesquite and sumach offer her illimitable resources of 
tannin, her countless herds the raw material, cheaper than 
elsewhere in the United States, and the Mexicans offer 
cheap and quickly taught labor. What a folly to ship these 
hides to New England, and ship them back in leather and 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOSSEBACK. 123 

shoes, paying freight and insurance both ways, besides the 
labor and profits of the tanner and manufacturer ! It is 
this folly that makes a people poor and dependent. When 
she embarks in manufactures as well as commerce, her 
prosperity will be great. 



TIL 



The Mexicans. 

I WOULD not do well to leave San Antonio without 
speaking of these people and their quarters. They 
dwell principally west of the San Pedro, and that portion of 
the city is called by all the rest of the inhabitants, " Mex- 
ico," by way of distinction or derision. I have said that 
the houses of San Antonio were all, or nearly all, built of 
stone. I was at fault in this, for I did not then have 
" Mexico" in my mind. Here the houses are of straight 
cedar posts, stuck upright into the ground, and covered 
with roofs of grass. The cracks between the poles are 
daubed with mud. They generally have but one room, 
and very rarely more than two. Some of them have chim- 
neys, but most do not, and none, I believe, have floors. 
The black earth is beaten hard and made smooth with 
grease, and this is all the floor that they want. Some of 
the most pretentious have windows. These edifices are 
called jacels, which, I suppose, is the Aztec for ''palaces ;" 
but the Americans call them hay-ricks. When there is 
not a chimney to these palaces, the residents cook out of 
doors when it does not rain, and over a pan full of coals 
in the house when it does rain. Fire about these palaces 
must be dangerous, in view of the great abundance of 
straw, and yet it is a provokingly rare thing that one be- 
comes ignited. Their beds consist of a well-dried cow- 
skin spread out on the ground in one corner, and on this 
they pile a quantity of straw. You will invariably find. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 125 

living in these residences with the rest of the occupants, a 
couple or two of black dogs, utterly hairless, and the 
ugliest things in tile world. Their being hairless, how- 
ever, is a great advantage, in that they can harbor no fleas. 
What these dogs are good for, I could not possibly learn, 
as they are too lazy to catch rats, and they certainly could 
not master a rabbit, even should they by chance catch one. 
Yet the Mexicans love these strange creatures with a ten- 
der affection, and I have seen even old men take them in 
their arms and let them lick their lips. 

The color of the Mexicans varies from that of new- 
tanned leather to a peculiar reddish black. Their hair is 
coarse, coal-black and straight as an Indian's. Their 
cheek-bones and noses are generally prominent, and many 
of the latter are aquiline. They do not average so much 
in size as the Americans, but a few of them are of robust 
stature, and some are fat to obesity. Their shoulders and 
chests are broader than the Americans in proportion to 
size, indicating strength and endurance. They are always 
smoking cigaritos, both male and female, and they always 
puff the smoke through their nostrils. They wear broad- 
brimmed woolen hats, of a grey or bluish color, and many 
have bands coiled aboat them, representing snakes. The 
number of these snakes is said to indicate the rank or es- 
timation in which the wearer of the hat is held : one 
snake indicating a gentleman, two snakes a more advanced 
gentleman, and three snakes an exalted gentleman. They 
seem to me to take much more after the Indian than the 
Spaniard. I have indeed seen scores of them who were as 
much like the Digger as possible. 

They live principally on hash made of dried beef and 
rendered fiercely hot with red pepper. With this they eat 
pods of red pepper, raw onions, and cornbread made into 
crackers, which have a strong taste of ley. In summer 
they sometimes appear to live for days together on nothing 



126 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

but watermelons, for which their fondness is remarkable 
and really child-like and affecting. They seem to be a 
free and easy folk a Jid apparently enjoy life greatly. They 
are, under all circumstances, exceedingly polite, and no 
stranger can speak to them without being pleasantly im- 
pressed by them. Their politeness is of natural growth, 
as you perceive it even in the naked children who run 
around their houses. In winter they wrap themselves 
around in blankets having all the colors of the rainbow. 
These are woven by their women ; they will shed water 
like the back of a duck, and they have a hole in the mid- 
dle, through which the wearers protrude their heads, so 
that almost the entire body is covered. 

Many of their women are absolutely pretty in spite of 
their dark features. They have not the angular outlines 
of the men, but generally a rich and rather voluptu- 
ous emhonpoint. This when they are young, for as they 
advance in life they gi'ow ugly. The Mexican women 
have a singular way of squatting on the ground in groups 
and circles, about the doors of their domicils, where they 
sometimes remain without moving out of their tracks, for 
hours. I suppose they contract this habit from the fact that 
chairs are an article of furniture rarely found in their 
houses. The men make excellent teamsters and herdsmen, 
and the women are said to make very docile and superior 
housewives. Indeed, I think that the Mexicans need only 
education to make them a very respectable people. They 
are generally very ignorant, and the women know nothing 
whatever except what transpires in their own little circle. 
Not one in a thousand, even of those who have lived, 
longest in San Antonio, can speak one word of English. 
They are the most devout believers. Every day precisely 
at noon the great Cathedral bell tolls in San Antonio, and 
every Mexican within the sound of it immediately takes 
off his hat and stands bare-headed until it ceases tolling. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OIT HORSEBACK. 127 

All of this is of the lower classes of Mexicans, or those 
who compose about ninety-nine out of every hundred you 
meet ; for there are Mexicans in San Antonio of pure Cas- 
tilian blood, who are quite as white as the Americans, and 
are a fine-looking and elevated race. They look upon the 
dark Mexicans with contempt, and call them Peons and 
Indians. The ladies of this class are nearly always of 
wonderful beauty, and they and their musical voices are 
among the principal attractions of the wealthy parlors of 
San Antonio. 

The Mexicans of all classes seem to me to be infatuated 
on the subject of dancing. They are ready to dance at 
all hours, at all seasons, and under all circumstances, and 
they perform with great gracefulness and ease. Perhaps 
there is no people in the world of whom it may be so truly 
said that their genius lies in their heels. 

To Arms. 

Up to this point I had travelled without arms, receiv- 
ing nothing but kindnesses on the road. Believing I 
should feel better hereafter to have an arsenal about me, 
I purchased a sixteen-shooting Henry rifle, two of Colt's 
navy six-shooters, and a quantity of ammunition. Now, 
feeling like a monitor with turrets, I leaped on the stage- 
coach and sped away to New Braunfels and slept. 



DIVISION III 



I. 



The Texas Pont. 

"TT"7"HEN I mounted my horse, I found him in excel- 
VV lent condition and full of mettle. He is of the 
hardy half-breed — the product of an American stallion 
and a mustang mare, a cross which produces an animal of 
good size, and unequalled for such a journey as this. The 
pure mustang, or Mexican horse, of Texas, is a small crea- 
ture, hard-headed and self-willed, tricky and treacherous, 
but withal a wonder of endurance. Give him a chance 
to engorge himself twice in twenty-four hours with grass, 
and he will endure any reasonable amount of hard riding 
without complaint. The Texans gauge the endurance of a 
mustang by his capacity to hold grass. If his belly be un- 
usually large, they say he will do to tie to, and will wear 
out half a dozen American horses on a rough trip. These 
little shaggy, unkempt creatures, will, while the traveller is 
sleeping, crop grass all night, and when led to the saddle 
in the morning, they have stuffed themselves so greedily 
that their sides stick out ludicrously, and the girth will 
hardly be long enough. As the day goes on the girth 
loosens, and the rider will have to dismount before noon to 
tighten it. Eaised on the grass, they want no other food, 
and frequently it is a hard job to teach them to eat any- 
thing else. Totally unused to shoes, their hoofs are wellnigh 
as tough as iron, and they care no more for the rocky hills 



TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IX TEXA.S OX HORSEBACK. 129 

than a goat. When discontented with their rider, they have 
an ugly habit of gathering themselves up in a knot and 
springing perpendicularly into the air, coming down with 
a terrible jolt. They will repeat this exploit rapidly, and 
he must be a good horseman who will not be dislodged. 
While they do this, they frequently let fly some unearthly 
yells or bawls. The Texans call this '^pitching," and the 
young stockmen who are the best riders in the world, take 
delight in it. I have seen them prick their mustangs just 
for the fun of enjoying a good pitch. 

The Comal. 

The Braunfelsians say that this is the most beautiful 
river in the world, and let it be borne in mind that most 
of those who say so have seen the Rhine, the Rhone, the 
Seine, the Guadalquivir, and the other famous and 
beautiful rivers of Europe. I too have seen the most 
famous and beautiful rivers of America, and as the spark- 
ling Comal dashes by me, I freely offer to it the crown of 
beauty. If not the stately Venus, yet it is the brightest, 
laughingest nymph of them all. To call its playful waters 
crystal, would not express it : they flow like melted dia- 
mond over a bottom of pearl. So limpid are they that 
pools ten to twenty feet deep disclose the smallest object 
at the bottom. You can look into its depths and see the 
picture of yourself as distinctly as in a mirror. Milton 
says that when Eve first waked into existence, she found 
herself sitting by a pool, and leaning over to drink, saw the 
image of herself below, and loved it to distraction, till 
Adam came. I sometimes think Milton was taught the 
truth by inspiration, and if what he says of this be true, 
it must have been in the Comal that she saw her image, 
and here must have been Eden ! May not the great Cre- 
taceous wall which rises above me, have been the north 
wall of the garden ? 
6* 



130 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 

One unused to this river may get himself into trouble 
with its water, if he watch not where he plants his 
steps. He may come upon a pool, twenty feet deep, and 
so clear is the water and distinct every object in it, that 
the bottom seems not more than a foot or two under the 
surface. He steps in, and, to his amazement, sinks like 
a rock and thinks the bottom has fallen out beneath him ! 

Occasionally from its north bank great clijffs of stone 
hang beetling over the river. In these are several caverns; 
one with a hall eight acres in extent, illumined with sta- 
lactites and great pillars of snow-white. Perhaps these 
were the concert halls of the gnomes and genii. 

EivERs Under the Ground. 

About three miles above Braunfels this river, like the 
San Marcos, San Antonio, and San Pedro, gushes sud- 
denly out of the ground, in innumerable springs — some 
with such force that they produce dancing cones of water 
on the surface of the fountain. This is peculiar, and with- 
in my knowledge there is nothing like it in other lands. 
Other rivers are made by slow accretions, but these jump 
up full-fledged, like Minerva from the brain of Jove. They 
must be rivers under the ground, running perhaps hun- 
dreds of miles in perpetual darkness, before leaping into 
Hght. This would explain the limpidity of their waters ; 
passing through subterranean grottoes, untinged with the 
sediment of the hills and fields, and their channels undis- 
turbed by intruding man or animals. But if this be so, 
would there not be found occasionally in these waters eye- 
less fishes like those in Mammoth Cave, or strange varieties 
unsuited to streams above ground ? And yet none such 
have been found. It may be that pure as they are when 
they have reached the light, their subterranean grottoes 
are charged with deadly gases which forbid piscine life. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 131 

I prefer not to believe this of streams so beautiful. I 
would rather believe that the nymphs of the grottoes 
stand watch and ward at the portals that lead to light, 
and herding the finny tribe, drive them back when they 
would pass through. Or perhaps those subterranean grot- 
toes sparkle so brilliantly with gems,, that the sun's light 
is not needed, and the finny tribe sport indifferently 
within and without. 

I have noticed that, so far, these remarkable rivers 
gush to the surface where the Cretaceous formation ter- 
minates and the Eocene begins. The line of demarcation 
between these formations in every instance is very dis- 
tinct : sometimes rising in precipitous bluffs, as in the case 
of the Comal, but usually the Cretaceous slopes to the 
Eocene in regularly descending undulations, and it is at 
the foot of these long slopes that the great fountains 
mostly burst forth. The cavernous nature of its limestone 
rocks makes this formation favorable above all others to 
subterranean streams. Its extent in Texas is enormous, 
and its thickness at least two thousand feet. Its north- 
western edge is tilted up, and thence it slopes to the south- 
east in an immense inclined plane, studded with beautiful 
mountain scenery, and the loveliest vales and lawns on the 
American continent, or elsewhere. These subterranean 
rivers probably take their rise near the upper edge of this • 
formation ; flowing down through winding ca\4'ns, por- 
ticoed, pilastred, architraved and jeweled, falling over 
great precipices, murmuring along smooth channels, and 
rolling silently through dark pools. By the time they 
have reached the termination of the formation, they have 
doubtless cut their way to the base of the strata, where, 
coming in contact with the harder rocks beneath, and the 
impermeable clays in front, they are brought to a halt, 
and pressed upward with such force by the rushing cur- 
rent behind, that the superincumbent .masses of rock are 



132 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 

rent asunder, the rivers rush to the surface, and the glo- 
rious fountains are the result. 

That these rivers come from great depths, is proved by 
the temperature of their water, which never varies at the 
fountain, in summer or winter. They are so temperate 
that one may bathe in them with delight even in winter, 
and during cold days they smoke like a boiler. I have 
never obtained the exact temperature, but believe that it 
is at least 80° of Fahrenheit. The temperature of under- 
ground cisterns in Texas averages about 50°, showing a 
difference of 30° between the water of the surface and that 
of these fountains. As the heat of the earth increases one 
degree for about every sixty feet of descent, this would 
place the source of the fountains eighteen hundred feet 
below the surface, or about the base of the Cretaceous 
strata. 

The Shore of the Eocene Sea. 

Leaving the fountains, my pathway led up the declivity, 
whose stony ascent rang with a metallic sound under my 
horse's feet. On the top of it, the territory rolled away to 
the north in a continuous elevation, rising higher as it 
faded away in the distance ; cut by ravines, sinking in 
green valleys, or thick with cedar-covered or bleak and 
stony mountains.* Below was the vast, green prairie, with 
its smooth undulations and tumuli, its long lines of forest 
marking the course of rivers and creeks, thp white city of 
Braunfels, and the villages and farms. It was a sudden 
elevation of the country, a hundred or more feet above the 
fountains, and rapidly ascending to the north and north- 
west. It is a total change of the physical conditions/ and 
a region utterly new lay before me. 

Here was the shore of the Eocene Ocean ; in other 
words, all before me was good dry land, and all below, an 

* So-called, but thej' ai'e simply large hills, putting on mountain airs. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 133 

illimitable misty ocean, whose billows thundered and hurled 
their spray on these very rocks at my feet. There was no 
island on that sea for thousands of miles, and no sails on 
its bosom ; for then man was not. But it was not alone ; 
for the ^' spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep," 
preparing the young world for the habitation of man, and 
perhaps the winged angels hovered over it and walked up- 
on this shore, assisting in the great work. This ancient 
sea-shore extends westward to the Rio Grande, in curved 
lines, — eastward to Austin and thence north-east to an un- 
defined distance. I know of no other region where the 
line of separation between two distinct epochs of the 
world's creation, is so boldly drawn. It is in fact almost 
as distinct as shore and sea. 

This point is eight hundred feet above the level of the 
sea, and to that depth the ocean has subsided since it beat 
upon these rocks. George Wilkins Kendall used to say 
that Texas begins at this ancient shore, and that all below 
it is not Texas or even akin to it. He loved the romantic 
wilderness of the Cretaceous. 

My Cibolo Again. 

Riding some fifteen miles over this New Switzerland — 
sparsely populated with shepherds and small farmers — I 
again descended into a wide, delightful valley, well filled 
with farms. Down the centre of it ran a pretty rivulet, 
shaded with pecans, elms and oaks, and sometimes embow- 
ered under vines. I was amazed when they told me it was 
my Cibolo. Here it sparkled, laughed, murmured and 
sang ; and yet where I had left it some twenty miles below, 
its channel was the bleakness of desolation, ugly and de- 
formed, without a drop of running water ! What manner 
of stream is this, which enlarges as you ascend it, and is 
belittled and ceases altogether as you descend it ? Truly, 
I cannot help but think with my Jehu that it is the comi- 



134 TWO THOUSAi^D MILES li^" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

calest stream in the world. It is a contradiction of a river ; 
a turning of nature upside down ; standing the pyramid 
on its apex. I account for it by supposing that it steals 
away through fissures or crevices in the limestone, and 
runs along in caverns under its own channel, till meeting 
some obstruction it is forced to rise again. My Cibolo 
does not like too much company, and steals away into sub- 
terranean solitudes to enjoy his own meditations and phi- 
losophy ; and when he has his fill of these, he emerges. 
Truly, he is an original genius.* And when I reflect 
that even the streams here are philosophers, I cannot won- 
der that the population should be infected with philoso- 
phy ; for all this region hereabout is filled with philoso- 
phers and learned gentlemen and ladies, who are mostly 
shepherds. It is the Greece — I cannot say the Athens — 
of Texas. So much for the influence of my strange and 
original Cibolo. 

This is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is a 
Paradise to the poor man who works, and to the rich man 
who loves philosophy. They have an aristocracy together. 

. Three Coyotes. 

While riding up the valley, three coyotes crossed the 
road a short distance before me, and did not seem to con- 
sider my presence one of much moment. They stopped 
and gazed at me a moment and then pursued their course. 
They had probably just had their fill of carrion, and were 
on their way to slake their thirst at the rivulet. 

These creatures are of a reddish brown, or brindled 
color, and as much like a dog as two black-eyed peas are 
similar to one another. Indeed, I have seen many dogs in 
the domestic state from whom it would be difficult to dis- 
tinguish them. Their ears are stiff and long, and their tails 

* The Hondo, fifty miles west of the Cibolo, behaves precisely in the same 
way — frequently disappearing and rising again. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 135 

bushy. If a lar^e vellow cur should associate with a 
female buU-fice of nearly similar color, I judge that the 
product would be very much the same as the coyote. They 
are about three feet in length, exclusive of tail, and about 
eighteen inches in height. They invariably carry with 
them an air of profound melancholy, as if some mortal 
anguish was at their hearts. This appearance is so striking 
that no one can look upon them without being so greatly 
impressed by it that he feels melancholy himself. What 
can be the reason of this is a mystery to me. I conceive it 
to be a true melancholy, for I can think of no ends which 
the coyote may subserve by hypocrisy. I have thought that 
it might be the result of a very hard life, in which there is 
a continual struggle for the first necessities, making pro- 
longed and painful fasts of frequent occurrence. But this 
explanation is overthrown by the fact that ever}'" coyote I 
ever handled was in excellent order, — far more so than the 
general run of dogs in the domestic state — and I never 
saw one who appeared uncomfortably lean. Food, also, is 
so abundant in this country that they need never feel dis- 
tress about their next meal. The most probable explana- 
tion seems to me this : It is the nature of the dog to love 
the society and protection of man. A dog without a master 
is the most melancholy thing in nature, and I have known 
the dogs of bachelors to lie down and die with inconsolable 
grief after the death of their masters. It is said that man 
is the only animal that sheds tears, but I have seen a dog 
shed tears after the death of its master. The coyote is but 
a dog, with all of the dog's nature, and it may be that his 
melancholy is the result of some unsatisfied desire which 
he cannot understand, like '^ the desire oi the moth for 
the star;" or that he feels that he is entitled to man's 
friendship and protection, and pines with sorrow because 
they are withheld. Certain it is, that he hangs closely and 
longingly around the haunts of men, and is rarely if ever 



136 TWO THOUSAJ^D MILES 1'^ TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. 

found remote from them. Though shot at, pursued and 
poisoned by man, it may be that he loves from afar off the 
hand that is uplifted against him, and yearns for the day 
when he shall be taken to its protection and his love re- 
turned. If this be not the true explanation, my faculties 
are entirely at a loss to suggest what may be. 

They often meet in considerable company and form a 
circle, facing each other, all sitting on their hind-quarters. 
After a series of low barks and yelps, they break forth 
into most piteous moans and howling, as if their hearts 
had broken. I fancy that on such occasions they are re- 
ceiving reports on the prospect of man receiving them into 
friendship, and when an unusually cruel story is related of 
his unrelenting persecutions, their grief becomes ungov- 
ernable, and they involuntarily give vent to it in their 
dismal lamentations. I have listened to them until I felt 
exceedingly sorry for them, and have often thought that 
if the writers of operas could hear them, they might re- 
ceive valuable hints in forming the mournful parts of their 
music. Certainly I have never heard from any other 
source such deeply melancholy and affecting notes ; and 
I have heard most of the operas of any note on the stage. 

They are very numerous on the Texas prairies, partic- 
ularly those that are covered with chaparral. About San 
Antonio they are so tame that they enter the city every 
night, and travellers sleeping in the chaparral often have 
their sacks of victuals stolen from under their heads. 
They will eat anything that comes along, whether it be a 
fat shoat or a tender lamb, and will drive buzzards awav 
from a festering carcass. But the morsel which seems to 
them most delicious above all others, is a dried cow-skin. 
By this they will encamp and gnaw for days in succession, 
until hardly a hair is left to tell where the skin had been. 
I have never known them to do any damage, except by 
picking up an occasional stray pig or weakly lamb that 
had been lost bv its mother. 



II. 



BOERNE. 

A FEW hours' ride up the vale of my Cibolo — whose 
waters continually increased as I ascended it — 
brought me to the hamlet of Boerne, the capital seat of 
Kendall County, and the rose of all this new Switzerland. 
It reminds me of many pictures I have seen of villages 
hidden in dells, forming a little world to themselves. On 
the west and north is a mountainous wall of stone, crowned 
with evergreen mountain growths, shutting it out com- 
pletely from those horizons ; and from the east the high- 
lands slope down to it with a long descent, covered with 
forest. My Cibolo sweeps against the abutment of this 
dark, precipitous wall, and Boerne sits mostly on its east 
bank. To the north the wall is some miles off, allowing 
quite a sweep to the eye in that direction. The population 
is five or six hundred, two-thirds German ; the houses are 
stone, all neat, and many evidencing the prosperity and 
refinement of their owners. The rapid elevation of the 
country, after reaching the Cretaceous wall, is shown by 
the fact that Boerne sits fifteen hundred feet above the 
sea, while Braunfels at its foot, not a day's journey away, 
is only seven hundred. The atmosphere here is of the 
upper strata, pure as the icicles on Dian's temple, and in 
summer never hot. Hence, at this season it is a favorite 
resort to those seeking delightful quarters, where there is 
no temptation to spendthrift. Here is a fine chalybeate 
spring, which increases the attractiveness. 



138 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

There is, as the French would say, ^' I do not know 
what " of an air of a higher and most refined civilization 
sitting over this whole community. It impresses one with 
the conviction that here might his family reside in happi- 
ness and plenty, he being away himself, and his sons and 
daughters left to grow up almost at will, confident in the 
faith that they would develop into good men and women. 

The Products. 

The products of this region are exceedingly varied, and 
hence the unusual and universal good condition of its peo- 
ple. Every countryman has his quiver full of arrows, and 
all are well-to-do, and most of them independent. Wheat 
is a never failing harvest, yielding from twenty to thirty 
bushels to the acre, on lands which have never received an 
ounce of fertilizers from the tillers. Should these lands 
occasionally receive a dressing of phosphatic guano, there 
can be no doubt that their yield would be greatly increased 
— perhaps as much as a third. Oats, barley and rye flour- 
ish as well, the two former producing extraordinary crops. 
Cotton is not grown, but would do as well here as else- 
where, in the valleys. The tiller is independent of the 
merchant or the great planter for his sweets ; for the 
sorghum flourishes almost without attention, and the bee 
nearly the whole year round accumulates his stores. He 
is independent of France or the Rhine for his wines, for 
the wild grape is so abundant that not less, as I am told, 
than fifty thousand gallons of wine were made the past 
season in Boerne and the vicinity. This wine, to my taste, 
is usually a strong-bodied claret, but some of it is much 
like the Catalan wines of Spain. Peaches, pears, plums, 
cherries and figs are grown on every place, and the region 
is also proving itself well adapted to some varieties of the 
apple. In addition to all of these, consider that while the 
farmer plants and gathers his crops and the fruits of his 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IJST TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 139 

orchards and vineyards, his herds are constantly increasing 
his property without increasing his labor to an appreciable 
degree. 

Sheep Husbandry. 

But the most distinguished industry of this region, and 
that which has given it its most interesting society, is 
sheep husbandry. It has the name of the sheep region 
far excellence of Texas, but I cannot see that it is better 
than many districts I have passed over, if so good. I sus- 
pect that, like many other things, it owes its reputation to 
the pen ; which, let us say what we will, is far mightier 
than the sword. Here George Wilkins Kendall came to 
live, some twenty-five years ago, after he was full of honors 
obtained in other fields. He began the sheep-raising busi- 
ness on a small scale as an experiment ; and his flocks 
prospered beyond anything he had known in his native 
Vermont, or in France and Spain. Being a most lively 
writer, he wrote profusely on the subject, and his articles 
seemed to go everywhere. Men with money came to 
Boerne from every portion of the United States ; from 
Scotland, England, and even distant Australia. Many en- 
gaged in sheep-raising in Kendall's neighborhood, in order 
that they might have his advice and example ; and thus 
the reputation of the region grew, until there are now be- 
tween thirty and forty thousand fine sheep within a small 
circumference about Boerne. Besides wool the shepherds 
, derive an income from the sale of bucks ; for a ''■ Boerne " 
or a ^' Kendall" buck is a sine qua non to all young men 
embarking in the business. Kendall from this source per- 
haps made as much money as from the sale of his fleeces ; 
for a portion of his flocks was derived from the finest bucks 
and ewes of Spain and Fnince, which he had selected and 
imported himself. Before his experiment there was no 
sheep husbandry in Texas ; but since then, by the light 



140 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

of his example, it has grown to exceed that of any other 
State, or if this is an over-estimate it soon will not be. 

The basis of nearly all the flocks, and most of the Ken- 
dall flocks, is the coarse, shaggy, diminutive Mexican ewe, 
whose fleece seems to be a genuine hair instead of wool. 
These singular creatures are associated with the purest 
Merino bucks, and their product in a few removes becomes 
60 fine that none but an expert can distinguish them from 
the true Merino, and finally they are entirely lost in the 
Merino. Indeed, they are probably a true Merino them- 
selves, for they were brought by the Spaniards to Mexico, 
where they have been allowed to degenerate from want of 
intelligent husbandry. They have their merit in their ex- 
ceedingly healthy and hardy constitution, and in the fact 
that they are natives of the climate. 

There are a few flocks which have been graded up from 
the common American ewe, from Missouri and Arkansas, 
and I discussed with a wool-grower the relative merits of 
that stock and the Mexican to breed from. He held that 
while the American crossed with the Merino gave a larger 
and handsomer animal, and was better in the early results, 
yet these advantages were overcome by the more rapid and 
thorougli improvement of the Mexican. In favor of the 
Mexican it is also a fact that they can be obtained at about 
half the cost of the American — a matter of much impor- 
tance to the young man without much money who pro- 
poses to embark in the business. 

The flocks are divided into brigades or regiments of not 
more than a thousand each, and the sexes kept separate, 
except during a short period when the finest bucks are 
allowed to visit the females. One shepherd, usually a 
Mexican, accompanies each brigade on its walk over the 
** range," assisted by one or two well trained dogs, which 
are taught not to allow the sheep to scatter. They ai'e 
driven up every night to their cotes, and the dogs sleep 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 141 

with them and never abandon their posts. They receive 
no other food than the grass they pick on their walks, and 
this is abundantly sufficient. Tliey are not allowed to 
walk over the same track two days in succession ; so that 
the grass is restored by the genial clime and fertile soil as 
fast as they pluck it. 

It is estimated that a well graded flock will average 
annually about four pounds of wool to the head, worth at 
this time in San Antonio and Braunfels twenty to twenty- 
five cents per pound. As the care of a flock of two thou- 
sand need not exceed three hundred dollars a year, for 
service and maintenance of two shepherds, and the increase 
of animals is at least fifty per cent, the profit of the busi- 
ness seems apparent. 

The Society of Shepherds. 

No one can travel among the sheep- raisers of Texas 
without being struck with the fact that they are almost 
invariably people of intelligence, and often of high culture 
and refinement. They are the aristocracy of the stock- 
men. The cattlemen as a general thing are unmistakably 
rough, and rarely have many evidences of civilization about 
them. Indeed, they seem to me to have a scorn of the 
amenities and humanities, and look upon them as pitiable 
weaknesses. Were the world filled with them alone, there 
would be a darkness thicker than that of the medieval 
ages : no song, no poetry, no eloquence, no railroads, no 
ships, no pretty gardens and flowers ; but in place of these 
there would be abundance of chivalry and broken heads, 
for the cattle-raisers are bold, reckless and adventurous. 
Should there be dragons spitting fire and consuming things 
with their breath, they would be sure to find them out and 
annihilate them. The horse-raiser is a long adA'ance to- 
ward civilization, and many of them very closely approxi- 
mate the sheep-raiser. Were the world filled with them 



14:Z TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

alone, there would be a moderate supply of poetry and 
eloquence, and no lack of wars. On the other hand, if we 
were all shepherds — and I may judge from my own obser- 
vations — it would be all poetry, music, eloquence, all hu- 
manity and no war. The valleys would re-echo with the 
notes of the flageolet and pipe. 

These are curious points, but they stick out so prom- 
inently that a traveller would behoove to be very benighted 
not to observe them. I have thought a good deal over the 
phenomena, and have come to the conclusion that the 
animals we associate with have a much greater influence 
over us than we are willing to admit ; in fact, that they 
impress us much more than we impress them ; in other 
words, that they gradually convey their natures into us, 
receiving in return little or none of our nature from us. 
Man is a very impressible creature, undoubtedly, and may 
be greatly affected by the society about him, whether it be 
of other men or animals. If the society about us is more 
elevated than we are, our tendency is to be elevated to it ; 
if it is infinitely below us, our tendency is to bo degraded 
to it. Now, the Texas steer is the roughest thing in the 
world, having no trace whatever of civilization or the 
amenities. He will rush through thorny thickets like a 
thunderbolt, leap stony ravines, and speed over rocks and 
mountains like a tempest, tail up. These are his delight, 
and like the man with the ass' head in the play, he would 
not give a bunch of thistles or peascods for all the ameni- 
ties and preserves. This is the cattle-raiser's constant 
companion and friend, and not only that, but his bene- 
factor, from whom he derives all his income and suste- 
nance. It is natural that he should entertain a very high 
regard for him, and at last look upon him as a model of 
human perfection. As time passes, he assimilates more 
and more to him, and before he is aware of it, has become 
more a steer or a bull than a man, except in outward 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 143 

shape ; and his wife and daughters are in danger of be- 
coming to as great a degree, cows and heifers, and his 
sons buU-vearlina^s. 

Of course, I do not mean to say that this is always the 
case ; but nature makes few exceptions, and it invariably 
results so unless the cow-man and his family are exposed 
to frequent influences from without, in the shape of a re- 
fined society, which may overcome the steady, silent influ- 
ence of the wild cattle. The cattle-raiser should hedsre 
himself about with books, papers and music, beautify his 
home, and frequently transj^ort himself and his family into 
other scenes. 

The horse is a much more beautiful and refined animal 
than the steer, and even in his wildest state is by no 
means devoid of accomplishments. He is the noblest of all 
the quadrupeds, both in comeliness of person and grace of 
mind. Man may therefore associate with him not only 
without being greatly lowered, but sometimes l)e actually 
elevated ; and I account for the great superiority of the 
horse-raiser over the steer-raiser, by this great difference 
in favor of the horse over the steer. 

The sheep from time immemorial, and in all languages, 
has been the symbol of gentleness, patience, and purity, 
and has always been associated with pastoral verse and a 
refined life. These things cannot pass into proverbs with- 
out being correct, and from nature. Even the Most High 
spoke of those who are chosen to life in heaven as his 
lambs ; and the Christ was the Lamb of God. It is but 
the natural result then, that the sheep-raiser should be of 
chaste, beautiful and refined life, such as he generally is, 
and such as I behold him here— occupying, by right of 
merit, the first place m society. It is the gentler influ- 
ence of the animal whom he loves and cares for and who 
in turn loves aqd cares for him, pervading him with its 
naturg. 



IM TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OiV HOKSEBACIi. 

I have also observed that the slieep-raisers of teji have a 
strongly reflective and philosophic cast of mind. I judge 
that the constant contemplation of the calm visages of the 
sheep leads to meditation ; and meditation leads to phi- 
losophy. 

Geokge Wilkins Kendall. 

This whole region has been made classic by the pen and 
residence of George W. Kendall, to whom it owes its fame 
and most of its prosperity. He is dead, but he is still the 
central figure here, and one often hears his name. He 
impressed himself deeply on the popular heart about him. 
His was a remarkable character, in which there was that 
strange contradiction of the sternest common sense with 
an overflowing fancy and spirit of romance ; a rare com- 
bination which makes the strongest and grandest of men. 
His spirit was one of those that never grow old, but ^' flour- 
ish in immortal youth." He had built up one of the 
greatest presses in the country and amassed a fortune by 
it ; had lived in the gayest capitals of Europe, with the 
gayest of their people ; yet he abandoned all of these for 
beautiful, but then wild, Texas, and chose to be a shep- 
herd. What was it but the singular spirit of romance that 
did this ? AVhat else impelled him on that wild and long 
tramp to Santa Fe, over a country till then untrodden by 
white men, and which has been made immortal by his 
vivid and sparkling, yet so genial pen ? From his home 
and occupation as a shepherd he would often break loose 
like a truant, to disappear sometimes for days and weeks 
in succession, in the deepest wilderness, with a few chosen 
friends, to commune with wild nature and wild animals ; 
living in the meantime on scarcely anything save what his 
rifle brought down. Some student of human nature has 
said that as we are all descended from savao^es who loved 



o' 



the floods and the wild woods and mountains, the ances- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 145 

tral instinct will still frequently crop out in the highest 
specimens of the race, impelling them to what their fathers 
loved ; and Kendall makes me think that this philosopher 
was right. Another great Texan, Sam Houston, while 
governor of Tennessee, unaccountably abandoned his office 
and resided some years among the Indians, adopting their 
dress and mode of life. When visited by his friends and 
urged to return to civilization, he pretended to have for- 
gotten their language, and responded simply with a grunt.* 
Was this the spirit of romance, or the savage instinct of 
the ancestry ? 

Kendall's family still resides at his favorite seat near 
this i:>lace, and his shepherd business thrives under, the 
management of the accomplished Mrs. Kendall. I hope it 
will not be intrusive in me to say it, but the fact seems so 
in point that I cannot forbear it. George Wilkins Ken- 
dall won his lady in the salons of Paris — the daughter of 
a French army officer — where she was born and grew into 
womanhood. One of the most beautiful and accomplished 
of ladies, young and of the most brilliant society, yet she 
cheerfully gave up all of these for her husband and beauti- 
ful but wild Texas ; and I am told that she has always so 
much loved this life, that, rich as she is, she cannot be in- 
duced to abandon it, even temporarily. Thus even the 
ladies, under the influence of the ancestry, may be smitten 
with the love of the romantic, as well as men. How do I 
know but that it is something of the kind that is impelling 
me on this wild trip ? For I certainly do not know of any 
imperious necessity that I should make it. 

* Such is the story told of him by those who knew him most intimately, and 
itis jast like him. 



III. 



Wild Natuee and Wild Beasts. 

AFTER abundant rest and good fare, I rode north. 
Fiye or six miles from Boerne the path led into a 
congeries of grizzly hills, crowded, with rocks, and starving 
a scrubby growth of cedar and various oaks and nettles. 
It is a forbidding country, given over to grimness and ruin. 
The ground, clanks under my horse's feet and occasionally 
gives forth a hollow sound, as if from caverns below. The 
road climbs these great hills or ridges in quick succession ; 
the valleys being mei-e gorges, piled wath naked rocks that 
have thundered from the precipices above. The fury of 
the torrents that sometimes sweep down these gorges is 
shown by the bleak, stony surface, on which there is not a 
handful of earth. Nothing lives here. Only a few scat- 
tering cattle are seen occasionally, browsing on the coarse 
grass and stumbling over the ringing heaps of stone ; and 
I can imagine that these are only wayward adventurers, 
"who when they get out of the district will not return. I 
was mistaken : there goes a flock of turkeys before me, 
dashing up the steep mountain in a long, black line, with 
the fleetness of race-horses. What do tliey live on here ? 
Looking around, I see numerous scraggy hackberry trees, 
loaded with red berries, and from these I suppose these 
birds draw their rations. 

But what is that noise ? It sounds like a shriek and a 
wail, and seems to be right on my path. I involuntarily 
grasped one of my pistols and drew it from the holster. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES I>f TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 147 

Again I hear it, and it is absolutely a shriek and a wail. 
Is it possible some horrible murder is being committed in 
this lonely and grim region — by a band of ferocious In- 
dians, perhaps ? I felt my hair rise, actually stand on end, 
but still rode on toward a thicket on the right of the road, 
whence the noise seemed to come. As I approached it my 
horse grew suspicious, and pricked up his ears and shied 
away from that side of the road. I momentarily expected 
something, but could not tell what. When immediately 
opposite the thicket everything was as still as a mouse, but 
suddenly my horse leaped to the left, almost causing me to 
fall from my saddle, and at the same moment two — not 
Indians — not murderers — but two splendid panthers 
bounded across the road immediately before me. I drew 
a breath of relief and lauo'hed at mvself for the asfitation I 
had felt. My horse also seemed greatly relieved, for he 
became at once quite gay and continued so for some dis- 
tance. 

The panthers disappeared in the brush, but one of them 
leaped on a large stone not more than fifty yards from me 
in full view, and stood there long enough for me to have 
shot him, had I been so disposed. But he looked so splen- 
did that I did not have the heart to do it. He was of a 
mouse color, apparently about three feet high, long and 
slender, with a head for all the world like a monstrous 
cat's, a long sweeping tail, which rested partly on the rock 
while the end of it, curled upwards, slowly waved hither 
and thither. He was eisfht or nine feet in len^'th. Pres- 
ently he leaped gracefully from the rock and bounded out 
of sight. 

This animal is a true cat, and the king of all cats, 
whom the tabbies should be proud of. They are in noth- 
ing distinguished from the domestic cat, save their greater 
.size, uniformity of color, more slender and graceful form, 
and more graceful movements, which are the poetry of mo- 



148 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 

tion. They even have the voice of the cat — with a greatly 
enlarged compass, of coarse. If one has -heard Tom and 
Tabby caterwauling on the eaves of a house at night, he 
can easily judge what the voice of the panther is. Some- 
times they make a noise almost exactly like that of a weep- 
ing child ; and the young folks think that they do this to 
decoy people into the woods, in order to devour them. 

They are not uncommon on the frontier and wilder dis- 
tricts of Texas, and are sometimes quite destructive to live- 
stock. They are particularly fond of young colts, and are 
for this reason thoroughly detested by the horse- raiser, 
who can only destroy them with his gun, as, unlike the 
wolf, they cannot be poisoned, refusing, as it is said, to 
touch any flesh which has not been slain by themselves. 
Xor will they eat any that is not fresh and sweet, being as 
cleanly as pussy-cat on the hearth. They have never been 
known to attack man in Texas, but have sometimes ap- 
peared to threaten it. An old Texan* told the writer that 
one evening while riding through a densely timbered valley, 
he was followed a considerable distance by two panthers, 
who kept but a little distance from him, bounding along 
sometimes before him, and stopping until he had passed. 
He was unarmed, but did not dare increase the speed of 
his horse, fearing that if he showed sign of alarm, the ani- 
mals would bounce upon him. They followed him until 
he had passed out of the valley into the open prairie. He 
afterward concluded that these panthers had their kittens 
closely by, and adopted this strategy to lead him away from 
them — as we sometimes see turtle-doves and other birds 
feign to be wounded and flutter before mischievous boys to 
lead them from their nests. 

Another instance was told me by a gentleman who had 
seen much experience of frontier life. He and a compan- 
ion had encamped in a deep forest, and had retired to their 

* Judge William Manifee of Fayette. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 149 

blankets, without a fire, which they were afraid to build, 
as marauding Indians were known to be in the neighbor- 
hood. Presently they were disturbed by a thumping on 
the ground, apparently quite near them. This was at in- 
tervals of a few seconds. When they arose to see what was 
the matter, the noise ceased and they could see nothing. 
Returning to tlieir blankets, it soon began again as before, 
but apparently nearer. They arose again and looking 
around carefully, saw, under the feeble moonlight, a huge 
panther crouched in a depression in the ground, not over 
ten feet from wliere they lay. Said the gentleman: '^1 
might have shot him dead with my pistol, but did not dare 
do "feo, for fear of attracting the Indians. But I held my 
pistol upon him while my companion hurled a big chunk 
at him. He bounded away and we heard no more of him. 
Had we remained quietly in our blankets or been asleep, I 
have no doubt he would have bounced upon us. You have 
seen a cat when watching to jump upon a bird ; she will 
continually raise her tail and stroke the ground with it, and 
this huge panther was practicing the' same sort of game 
on us." 

The frontiersmen sometimes eat the panther, but they 
do not consider it a first-class dish, saying its flesh has a 
peculiar sweetish taste which they cannot become used to. 
I should say that the flesh of a cat would be quite as good. 

The Sisterdalians. 

The grim desolation of stone and gorge abutted 
abruptly upon the sparkling Guadalupe, which has pierced 
it through the centre, cutting a tortuous, constricted 
channel, and the great rocks hang over it, sometimes on 
both sides at once. Deep in the shaded dell sits the little 
German hamlet of Sisterdale, shut up from every horizon, 
hemmed in by precipice, clanking rock and gorge. When 
I first saw it, I thought of a nest of robbers in the Alps ; 



150 TWO THOUSA^'D MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

but perhaps a more gentle, contented and happy people do 
not exist. But what sort of whim or fancy was it that im- 
pelled these people to choose this remote and isolated spot, 
when Texas has such millions of better lands to be had for 
the asking ? It takes all sorts of fancies to make a world ; 
else what scopes of God's globe would not be tenanted, and 
man would not truly possess the earth ! The Lap and 
the Esquimaux think that their lands of snow-clad hills 
and icebergs, with their nights of six months' duration, 
illumined by tlie gaudy curtains of the Aurora, are the 
most charming of earth, and they can dream of nothing 
more beautiful ; and so the Sisterdalian loves his deep 
gorges, the stony mountains and the roaring river, beyond 
all the fairest of the Texan domain. Let liim love on ! 
There is no likelihood that encroaching populations will ever 
jostJe these eagles in tlieir eyrie, or invite them to vacate their 
nests for new comers. They devote themselves to cattle- 
raising — and their cattle are almost as gentle as themselves — 
and to the cultivation of wheat, corn and grapes in the narrow 
Tales, or wherever a stoneless slope offers on the declivities. 

The Guadalupe has changed its course. Below the 
Cretaceous, it flows from the north. Here it flows from the 
west. It is the same sparkling stream as where I left it m 
the lowlands, with volume apparently not diminished, but 
how boldly different the scenery ! It is the difference 
between the mountains and the plains. Here it glances 
and flashes, roars, plunges and thunders ; but there are 
also many silent pools, through wdiich its blue waters creep 
with a scarcely perceptible motion. It is ever varying its 
beauty, and each picture seems more beautiful than the 
one that preceded. Thus I thought as I rode along. 

Eode up the valley fifteen miles to Comfort, a pros- 
perous little German town on the northern bank, and 
passed the night. 

Rode very leisurely up the valley twenty miles to 
Kerrville, and here I rest. 



IV. 



The Finest Coun^try I eyer Saw. 

rjTlHUS having ridden thirty-five miles up this valley, 
JL in a very observant humor, I am prepared to express 
an opinion of it; and the above heading I have written de- 
liberately. This upper Guadalupe valley is as rich as it is 
beautiful, as beautiful as it is rich, and as delightful in 
climate as it is beautiful in scenery or rich in soil. I have 
fallen completely in love. It winds through a region of 
noble highlands, generally covered with open forests of 
oak — grand, natural parks — in which the grasses of the 
prairie grow luxuriantly, and ranges or groups of moun- 
tains diversify the scene, in the blue distance or towering 
closely upon you. The valley itself is perfectly smooth, and 
down its centre flows the beautiful river, bordered with 
pecans, elms, and gigantic cypress. Frequently it is sev- 
eral miles in width, and over all this expanse there is not 
one inch of soil that is not deeply, perhaps inexhaustibly 
rich ; for do not the neigliboring hills renew as fast as cul- 
tivation could absorb their fertility ? The population is 
still sparse, but the farms only increase the native beauty 
of the scenery. It is dead of winter, it is true, but these 
fields of wheat are glorious to behold. I have seen noth- 
ing so luxuriant elsewhere. They absolutely seem to laugh 
with the glorious abundance, as if they were conscious of 
their superb merit. What there is that is desirable in a 
country, and which may not be had here, is past my find- 
ing out. How this valley will one day swarm with a most 
thrifty and happy population ! 



152 TWO THOUSAl^D MILES 11^ TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 

I scarcely know how it is, but all of this valley has been 
continually reminding me of G-reece, though I never saw 
Greece. The skies are the same, the climate the same, 
and where Greece is best and most beautiful, the countries 
are the same. At least such is the thought that has been 
running involuntarily through my mind these two days 
past ; and the idea is so irresistible that it seems to me 
that Kerrville is really named Athens ! The skies the 
same, the climate the same, the country the same, why 
may not the upper Guadalupians be great the same as 
Greece has been ! 

Wheat. 

Though cotton, corn and other grains grow quite as 
well here as elsewhere, wheat is the favorite crop of the 
farmers, and there is not one who does not devote a large 
share of his tillage to its raising. I asked them if they 
found it profitable ? *' No," said they, " because it grows 
so well that we are tempted to make too much. It grows 
so well that it is a pleasure more than a labor to make it, 
and we plant it more for pleasure than the expectation of 
profit. We are too remote from market, and wheat is too 
heavy to transport on wagons. If we only had a railroad, 
sir, we would grow too rich and make tlie outside world 
too happy with abundance of good bread." They assured 
me that the crop is subject to no disastrous contingencies 
and never fails to deliver its harvest. The droughts come 
sometimes, said they, but this is in the summer, and the 
crops have matured long before they come. They sow in 
fall, and pasture their calves and horses on the fields in 
winter, which, they held, increased the harvest, and pre- 
vented it from heading too early and thus running the 
risk of frost. The harvest varies from twenty-five to forty 
bushels per acre, but forty-five, and even more, is not an 
uncommon product. They use no fertilizers, and no in- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 153 

strument in the tillage but the common plow. With the 
use of occasional phosphatic manures and the improved 
implements and methods for tillage, what might not these 
noble acres produce ! 

And what splendid wheat this is ! If not the best in 
the world, it is certainly not surpassed by any that is grown 
elsewhere. It usually weighs about sixty-six pounds to 
the bushel, or six pounds over the standard, and has been 
known to exceed seventy pounds, as I am told. A bushel 
of this wheat will therefore furnish from six to ten pounds 
more of bread than a bushel of Illinois wheat, which will 
not always yield so much as sixty pounds to the bushel 
measure. Whence this excessive weight and this singular 
production of bread, bulk to bulk, as compared to other 
wheats ? It is in the perfect adaptability of the soil to the 
perfect development and maturity of the grain. The soil 
which gives wheat its best development is a calcareous mag- 
nesian, and here we have that soil in perfection, mixed 
with many other fertilizing ingredients. To assist this 
best development to a perfect maturity, a dry and elevated 
atmosphere under a southern sun is necessary, and here 
we have that atmosphere, under the brightest rays of a 
sub-tropical sun. Thus soil, elevation and clime combine 
to give to this wheat every advantage to make it what it 
is — unsurpassed, if not the best in the world. 

What this Wheat offers the Texas Ports. 

It offers to contribute largely toward establishing 
Houston and Galveston among the greatest flour-exporting 
marts in the world. It is known that for transportation 
on the high seas, and particularly southern seas^ the south- 
ern has a great advantage over western and noi'thern flour. 
The latter will quickly sour and greatly deteriorate, while 
the other may be rocked on the seas almost indefinitely 
and remain unaffected ; because, in the sunny regions in 



154 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

which southern wheat matures, its moisture is completely 
eliminated, while in the northern wheat, it is retained.* 
Hence the different effect of a warm, moist climate upon 
these different fioars ; the northern ferments, while the 
southern does not. For this reason southern flour has a 
special market in New York, and always commands a 
fancy price as compared to flour from other quarters. This 
"southern flour" so-called, comes from Virginia, Mary- 
land and North Carolina ; and if such is the superiority of 
the flour of these comparatively hyperborean regions, how 
much superior must be the flour of the sunny Guadalupe ! 
Therefore I cannot hazard much in predicting that the 
day is not remote when the product of these beautiful 
grain fields will be the favorite brands in the warehouses 
of exporters, and in Kio, Mexico and the West Indies ; 
and it is by Houston and Galveston that this great com- 
merce must be conducted. Their nearness to these inex- 
haustible fields and the superiority of the article, will give 
them an advantage that will place them beyond the reach 
of competition by other cities. New Orleans, St. Louis, 
and Baltimore or New York, cannot draw the product of 
these fields without transporting it through Houston or 
Galveston, and would have to add to its price at these 
cities the cost of transportation to their warehouses or 
wharves. A little three-foot railway running from Houston 
up the Guadalupe would immediately set this great trade 
in motion. 

The People 

of this valley are fit to inhabit such a home ; and that 

* This is also the reason why a barrel of Texas flour will make so much more 
bread than a barrel of Illinois, or other northern flour. A considerable percent- 
age of the latter is water, while the former has very little ; and water does not 
make bread. There is therefore more flour in one Texas barrel than one from 
Illinois, but kow much move is not exactly ascertained. An old baker in Houston, 
Mr- Jno. Kennedy, told the writer of this note that fourteen ounces of flour from 
north Texas made more bread than sixteen of the best from Illinois. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES I^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 155 

seems to me about as high praise as I could pass upon 
them. They are intelligent and hospitable ; mostly 
Americans from the Southern and Western States, and a 
good many Germans. While riding and conversing among 
them, I could hardly realize that I was on the remote fron- 
tier, where men are supposed to be unkempt and ill-man- 
nered ; yet another day's journey westward would place me 
in a region uninhabited, except by wild beasts and prowl- 
ing savages. They dwell in neat houses of stone, and 
many of the damsels are as pretty as lilies. Truly, 
female beauty flourishes everywhere, and man is the hap- 
pier for it. 

Athena, 

for such I will call it — is an assemblage of residences, 
whereof each stands on a five-acre lot, with a due quantity 
of stores all in a row, and the usual concomitants of churches 
and schools. The five acres are skilfully and thoroughly 
tilled, so that every inhabitant lives in the midst of a farm 
in the midst of a city. Thus Athena, unlike any other city, 
lives or may live, entirely upon herself. Her architecture 
is all of stone, generally pretty, and in her court-house it 
is imposing. Why did not the Athenans build this stately 
conrt-house on the pattern of the Parthenon ? for then 
the illusion that this is Greece would have been complete. 
Its modern structure seems to me a violent anachronism. 
Athena boasts a newspaper, *^ The Frontiersman," and I 
do not know that I ever read a paper with more interest. 
It is terse, vivacious, sensible, and I thought of Pericles 
and Aspasia. Athena has five or six hundred people, and 
the day was when Athens had not so many. 

This seems to be the headquarters of the buyers of 
beeves, from St. Louis and other cities of the west. They 
tell me that forty or fifty thousand beeves are sold here 
each year, at twelve to eighteen dollars a head — making 



156 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 

about three quarters of a million dollars annually turned 
loose upon these little streets. The cattle-man contracts 
with the buyers to deliver so many beeves on a day certain, 
and forthwith despatches his boys into the wilderness to 
gather and drive them up. The boys have a grand sport 
of it, and sometimes enjoy a few pitched battles or rough 
and tumble fights with the Indians, but they are sure to 
deliver their charge in good season. Father then receives 
his money and retires to his home on his five-acre lot, to 
enjoy his ease while his flocks are industriously making him 
another herd of beeves, to be converted into gold in their 
turn. A cattle-man who has boys, is here a prince at ease; 
and this is better than living in the midst of his cattle. 

If a railroad were here, what a business it would have 
in transporting beeves ! This alone would make it rich, 
and the buyers would be saved the expense and risk of the 
tedious drive. 

Night in Athena. 

The moon is pouring a flood of silver light upon the 
little city ; the air is vernal, and Athena is still as a mouse. 
No rumbling busses, no whirling carriages, no carousing 
bacchanals here. I listen if I may not catch the notes of a 
piano floatiug on the breeze, accompanied with a voice of 
sweeter melody. The song of a white-throated songster 
occasionally reached me, and I hear the music of the 
Guadalupe rolling its sparkling tide over the rocky chan- 
nel ; but the note of the piano is not here. There is not a 
piano in Athena. It is not surprising ; for how could a 
rich Grand or a voluptuous Steinway stand a voyage in an 
ox-wagon over these stony hills ? The ladies of Athena 
must wait for the rail. And here I think I may feel a 
secret sort of satisfaction and right honest pride in the 
reflection, that they will be partially at least indebted to me 
for their pianos when they get them ; for have I not con- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 157 

tribiited a good many round thousands and much good 
muscle in putting a road on foot that may reach them ? 
An honest, manly satisfaction with one's self need not 
argue egotism or personal vanity ; and I am not ashamed 
of the feeling here recorded, though 'tis myself that re- 
cords it. Who would not be proud to serve Athena's 
ladies ? 



Y. 



Geological Retrospections. 

DURING- the night a cloud passed over the valley and 
shook from its wings a shower of dew-drops : so 
that w^ien I mounted my horse and rode up the river, all 
nature seemed to sparkle with diamonds. And though 
this is mid-winter, the air is still like that of spring. How 
different to-day in tlie land whence I came. There doubt- 
less the earth is wrapped in sleet and snow, and instead of 
zephyrs, the wind howls a fearful storm. Some may de- 
light in the snow-scenes, the icicled forest and the nipping 
Arctic winds ; but give me the green jn-airies, the flowery 
valleys, the hazy mountains, and Zephyr with Aurora may- 
ing : in other words, give me Texas ! 

The geology of this country is full of interest to 
those who have a fondness for such research and specula- 
tion, as I have. Indeed, so great is my fondness for it 
that I can travel over no region to which it does not give 
a new charm; and it gives me abundant company in all my 
solitary rides. Every stone has a wonderful story to tell 
me, if I have the ears to hear it. They are historians 
whose volumes are infinitely more remarkable than those 
traced by human pens ; for they tell of the achievements 
of the Great Architect, and how and by what agencies he 
worked ; of the rise, progress and fall of the races that 
preceded ; and prophets, too, they may be, of man's des- 
tiny and the higher races that may succeed him. This 
little historian, however humble he may appear, — this lit- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 159 

tie pebble that I hold in my hand as I ride along, was an 
atom of the original fiery ocean, and saw the Great Arcni- 
tect when he laid the foundations of the globe and built 
thereon. Longer than he has been, he will continue to 
be. To my mind, these rocks and the stars of heaven are 
the revelation and the inspiration by which the Architect 
would have his creatures read him ; and if perchance they 
lead us into doctrines strange and erroneous, the error 
must be a pardonable one in the eyes of Him who gave 
them to us to teach us, and gave us our ears to hear them. 
Thus while I ride along the vale of the Guadalupe, I listen 
to the voice of His historians, and adore Him of whom 
they tell. 

The formation here is the lower Cretaceous, and the 
strewn boulders tell of the closeness of still older beds. The 
Ammonite is a very common fossil here, some of them of as 
great circumference as a cart-wheel. I saw two fragments 
of this class of fossils, one a Hamite and the other a 
Orioceras ; both peculiar to the lowest Cretaceous beds. 
They were exhibited to me by a farmer, who had picked 
them out of the Guadalupe and ke})t them about his house 
as curiosities. *' This," said he, ^'is a petrified cow's-tail, 
and this is a buck's horn ; but he must have been a big 
one to carry such a thing as this on his head." When I 
told him that they were ancient sea-shells, he was of 
opinion that I was mistaken, and still held to the cow-tail 
theory. He then showed me a fossil which was clearly 
the tooth of the iguanodon. " Now," said he, ''this thing 
is sorter strange, but I have studied it out that it was some 
sort of a weapon made by the Injuns." 

"No, sir," said I, after fingering it well, and scrutiniz- 
ing it with melancholy interest, " this is the mortal re- 
mains — the last tooth that is left, sir, of the great Iguan- 
odon — the great Lizard of the Ancient World, whose body 
was sixty feet in length and thirty feet in girth ; who wore 



160 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OJ?" HORSEBACK. 

a great horn on his head whose weight was hundreds of 
pounds : in short, sir, this is the tooth of the Great Dragon 
of Ancient Days." 

He looked at me a moment and quietly said : 

" You be dam !" 

After a moment he contemptuously kicked with his 
foot another fossil which he saw lying on the gallery be- 
fore him. '^ And that," said he, "is a petrified wasp's 
nest." 

*' No, sir," said I, as I held the fossil in my hand and 
gazed upon it with melancholy interest, ^Hhis is a frag- 
ment of the ' coral groves deep in the sea,' through which 
the mermaidens wandered and led their lives of bliss. 
Perhaps upon this very fragment they sat and sang and 
combed their locks. Sir, right over this spot where we 
stand rolled the Cretaceous Ocean, and here grew this 
coral on which the mermaidens sat and combed their locks. 
That was in the long, long time ago, and all the mer- 
maidens are now dead." 

He became very reticent, and looked at me with an ex- 
pression which seemed to say: "Well, ding you, if you 
were not in my house, I'd like to give you a good licking, 
if I could." He measured my heft with his eyes. 

How different this scene to-day from what it was then ! 
Then, indeed, a mighty ocean was here, whose great bil- 
lows broke on the granite walls evidently not far off, bear- 
ing fleets of ammonites and crioceras ; the monster moso- 
saurus sported in the foam or pursued the flying prey ; its 
shores covered with glorious forests of ferns and palms, 
resounding with the bellowing of iguanodons in battle, con- 
tending for the mastery of the young world. They did 
not know that they were but links, doomed to extinction, 
in the chain that leads to man. And man does not know 
but that he is but a link, doomed to extinction, in the 
chain that leads to a higher nature ! 



!rWO THOUSAIs'D MILES IIT TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 161 

If one could revert back and see with his natural eyes 
what has been, sail on those seas and converse with those 
monsters, might he not read the future ? One is as easy 
as the other. Knowledge is Futurity as well as the Past. 

Heave'i^. 

If the soul is immortal, as I think it is, and we become, 
after we have passed the river, purely intellectual exist- 
ences, knowledge-loving and knowledge-seeking, what a 
grand, eternal field have we for investigation, in the Archi- 
tect's infinite works ! When we have explored this planet 
and learned it all, and lived it all, perhaps assisted by the 
lips of some great archangel who was present at the foun- 
dation, what will prevent us, embodied ethereal essences, 
from winging our flight to another planet, and another, 
and another, through an eternity of knowledge and adora- 
tion of Him who made all these ? Such is an occupation 
worthy of angels and existences all intellectual. But how 
would the whore-master, the cheat, the swindler, the sor- 
did m.an enjoy all of these ? They must be provided with 
different occupations. When one steps across the river, 
he is fortunate if he can take with him a mind stored with 
knowledge and filled with the love of the works of Him 
who made him. If he does not, I cannot well perceive 
what he will do when he crosses the river. 

Such is my idea of Heaven. It is not that of every 
one. I once talked with a negro woman in a southern 
State, who was noted for her religious fervor. When she 
attended a meeting she never failed to strike great awe 
among the negroes by the singular fervor of her demeanor, 
both while the meeting was in progress and for some time 
after it had adjourned. She was loud and incoherent in 
her praises of God and the intense happiness that comes 
from religion. She accompanied these expressions with 
strange physical demonstrations, which seemed to me much 



162 TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

like those of a maniac or one who had lost all reason ; but 
the negroes seemed to regard them as proof of the highest 
development of piety, and looked on with awe, not un- 
mixed with envy of her good fortune in being so favored 
of God. I asked this woman what she thought was the 
occupation of souls after they had passed into eternal bliss. 
She said she had been to Heaven in a trance and knew all 
about it. Heaven was a great plain filled with houses of 
gold, and silver trees. The angels wandered over the plains 
shouting and singing, and when they felt inclined to eat, 
there were great numbers of roasted pigs running about 
bearing knives and forks in their mouths, and the blessed 
angels only needed to call them to them and eat their fill. 
I asked her if she would not tire of shouting and singing 
and eating roasted pig ; but she had no conception that 
she ever would. Her mind was evidently never ruffled by 
a single doubt ; she received every word of the preacher, 
however ignorant and stupid, as God's truth, and she ap- 
peared a very paragon of religion ; and yet I could not 
help but think that an honest doubt in my mind was more 
pleasing in God's sight than all her boundless religion. 
What will this poor creature do, if she finds Heaven not 
filled with roasted pigs ? I have heard that this woman 
afterwards produced several bastards ; a fact which must 
have caused wide-spread demoralization in the minds of 
the negroes who had held her in such devout esteem as a 
model of godliness. 

Knowledge is not only Power, but it is Life ; and the 
love of it is Life also. '' The soul that thirsteth shall be 
filled," and it is impossible for it to be filled in the circum- 
scribed sphere of mortality. 

A Strange Encounter. — Javalinas. 

About five miles above Athena — otherwise called Kerr- 
yille — my pathway left the Guadalupe and diverged to the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 163 

north-east, going up a valley about a half mile in width, 
but constricting as I ascended it. It is walled in by stony 
ridge and precipice. There are many beautiful live-oak 
groves and pretty sites for small farms, but no farm is 
visible. This valley is virgin, whose bosom no plow has 
touched. There are clusters of wild grapes, hardly bigger 
than duck-shot, of which I plucked and ate, and found 
them not unpleasant, but of sharp, sprightly acidity. 
Birds of many varieties fed on these grapes, and some of 
them raised a great clamor as they crushed the acidulous 
globules between their bills. Some six or seven miles up 
the valley I saw a company of hogs, in full view, but a few 
hundred yards off. Thinking a farm must be near, I 
fired my gun, hoj)ing a dog would bark and guide me to it. 
Instantly on the report of my rifle, these hogs dashed out 
of the brush from several places, hoofing as they ran, and 
smacking their mouths at a great rate. They formed in a 
squad, about sixty yards from the road, ahead of me, and as 
I approached them they seemed to grow exceedingly in- 
dignant ; all hands bristling uj) their backs and popping 
their jaws together as if they had a notion of making a 
meal of me. When about a hundred yards from them, the 
largest advanced to the front, deliberately began to ap- 
proach me, looking the very picture of wrath and indigna- 
tion, as if he craved the honor of disposing of me at once, 
without assistance. As he advanced, the others expressed 
their applause by rounds of boofs and a great popping of 
the jaws. My horse became uneasy, and as the advancing 
rascal seemed bent on battle and displayed two formidable 
tusks, I became uneasy in iwni, and thinking I had better 
look out for mv safetv, I raised mv rifle and sent a mass 
of lead through his body. He fell dead. The others on 
seeing this raised a bigger hoofing and popping than ever, 
and I expected a charge en 7nasse, but as they were not 
precipitate about it, I dismounted to view the dead duellist. 



164 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

The others then retired toward the brush, slowly and dog- 
gedly, going mostly tail foremost. When in the brush 
they disappeared, but I still heard them hoofing and pop- 
ping quite near at liand, as if they were still undetermined 
whether to charge upon me or not. I had no doubt I 
could easily get a battle out of them, if I chose to court it. 
As I approached the dead brave, who deliberately 
brought on his own destruction by marching out to attack 
a heavily armed traveller, who had in nowise interfered 
with him, my nostrils were assaulted by a fog of odor, 
which was well-nigh unendurable. Seeing I had slain a 
peccary, I determined to learn all about him, let him stink 
never so loudly. I judged him to weigh about sixty pounds, 
and therefore about the size of a small hog or shoat. His 
head was too big for his body, and his short, thick neck 
showed that he had great strength. His hair was coarse 
and bristly, and so long about the neck that it might 
almost be called a mane. He had a mere stump where the 
tail ought to be, and this was evidently not the result of a 
misfortune or surgical operation, for I observed no tail on 
his friends. His color was of a darkish yellow or dirty 
red, and the hairs were ringed with various marks or 
shades. Tliere was a faint band of white at the root of the 
neck, partly on each shoulder, resembling a collar. He 
bore his perfume on his back, close to the tail, in a lump 
or swelling quite as big as the fist. As this lump was con- 
tinually discharging its odor, I forbore to examine it 
closely. This odor was musk, and in small doses might 
not be unpleasant, but as he gave it forth, it was certainly 
tremendous, insomuch that I required to have great reso- 
lution to stay by him. He differed from a hog in that his 
head was more pointed, his ears much smaller and almost 
buried in the hair, and his formidable tusks turned up- 
ward instead of backward. On his hind feet he had but 
one upper toe, instead of two as the common hog. I am 



TWO THOUSAXD MILES IN TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 165 

told that they live on nuts, roots and berries, and scorn to 
eat the uncleanly food which the domestic hos^ will revel 
in. The Texans sometimes eat them, and say that when 
fat they make a very fair pork or bacon, if the stink paunch 
is taken off as soon as they are shot. If it is left on even 
for a few moments, the whole body becomes infiltrated 
and cannot be eaten. 

The Texans sometimes call these animals javalinas, the 
Mexican name, but generally the musk hog. They some- 
times enter a cultivated field and play havoc. Dogs are 
mortally afraid of them and cannot be induced to attack 
them. The Texans say they are the most dangerous ani- 
mals in the country — panthers, bears, wolves and lions 
being as nothing compared to them in courage and fero- 
city. If a man on foot encounters them, his only hope is 
to climb a tree, and they will then hang round him some- 
times for hours. They are probably the gamest rascals on 
earth, and as I studied their cranial development, I could 
not help thinking that there is truth in phrenology. Mur- 
derers and other ferocious villains are generally largely 
developed about the ears and neck, and these rascals have 
this murderous mark to an inordinate degree. It is said 
that they are always ready for a fight, and becoming once 
engaged, they know no retreat. 

The writers on natural history do not know everything 
of which they Avrite. They say that the peccary is found 
only in South America, and this I know not to be so. It 
is quite common all over Western Texas, particularly in 
regions that are thinly settled, or not settled at all. I 
inquired if these creatures ever crossed with the common 
hog and bred hybrid varieties. I was told that no such in- 
stance had ever been witnessed. It is probable that if a 
flock of common hogs should unwarily stroll upon a flock 
of these creatures, they would be immediately set upon 
and demolished. 



166 two thousand miles in texas on hoeseback. 

Anchoritic. 

The valley terminates in a nook whose secluded beauty 
contrasts singularly with the stony escarpments, the 
bronzed and shrivelled thickets, and the black precipices 
that frown upon it. Pleasant little groves of live-oak, 
shady recesses and sparkling brooks are here, with none 
but the chance wayfarer to love them. This is a pretty 
little spot of the globe not possessed : a dear little lassie 
without a laddie, and yet so capable of filling some laddie's 
heart with all the warmth and happiness of love. It is be- 
cause she is so seclusive and retiring that tlie laddies while 
loving her, fear to pursue. I thought it would make so 
blessed a retreat for some anchorite, wlio wishes to with- 
draw from the world and devote his life to innocence and 
holy contemplation. The stony precipices, the bronzed 
thickets and the stern country around would remind him 
of the world, with its sins and troubles, from which he had 
withdrawn, and the smooth, green nook would keep ever 
present to his mind the innocence and heaven he seeks. 
But how if my anchorite, while strolling on foot, absorbed 
in his holy contemplation, should step unawares into a herd 
of peccaries ? He would be obliged to climb a tree, and 
while thus imprisoned, and the furious, popping beasts 
standing guard around him, what would become of his in- 
nocence, his philosophy and holy contemplation ? When 
I reflected on this, I thought if I should turn anchorite I 
would seek other quarters. 

And yet how cheaply and well he could live here, bar- 
ring the discomfort arising from danger of peccaries, Any 
Guadalupe farmer woald sell him a bushel of the finest 
wheat in the world for fifty cents, so that his flour should 
not cost over two cents a pound, or five dollars forty-seven 
and a half cents a year. His meat and lard need cost him 
only the price of the powder and lead for a single charge 



TWO THOUSAND MILES . IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 167 

of his rifle ; for with one shot he could secure a bear which 
would yield him two hundred and fifty pounds of bacon 
and at least thirty-five pounds of excellent lard or oil. 
This would furnish him a year without the least effort at 
stinting. Tlie salt to cure it would not exceed a dollar, 
and yet leave him abundance to season his food during the 
rest of the year. The ammunition to secure this bacon 
and lard, I estimate exorbitantly at one cent. Coffee he 
would rarely care for, but we will allow him ten pounds a 
year, costing two dollars and fifty cents. He would need 
no sugar, because he could readily secure a bee-tree, or 
enter a bee-cave in the rocks and despoil it. Thus I esti- 
mate the entire cost of his provender as not necessarily 
exceeding seven dollars and ninety-eight cents a year, or 
about sixty-six cents a month, or two and a quarter cents 
a day. He could vary this fare greatly without increasing 
the cost perceptibly, with trout from the brook, or venison 
or turkey from the hills, and abundant store of grapes 
and berries. I believe that venison and turkey would be 
better viand for him, in his peculiar circumstances, than 
bear-meat, as being less stimulating and provocative. 

The cost of dress w^ould be a trifle, as he would soon 
rig up a suit of buckskin, which would last him indefi- 
nitely. Five dollars a year would be a very large allow- 
ance under this score. There might be some need of soap, 
but the cost of this would be so infinitesimal that it is un- 
necessary to include it in the estimate. Thus we have all 
that is wanted to keep him fat and heart:y, ^t twelve dol- 
lars and ninety-eight cents a year, or one dollar eight and 
one-sixth cents a month, or about three and three-fifth 
cents a day. 

Now let us look on the other side of the sheet. Of 
course our anchorite would not wish to pass his life away 
in nothing but holy contemplation and rest ; for this 
would be a sin and in violation of the divine law — "by 



168 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." Some labo- 
rious exercise would be requisite to his health. He would 
therefore enclose a twenty-five acre field, of which he would 
plant fifteen acres to corn, and ten to sweet potatoes, as 
being crops that are easily tilled. This would yield him, 
ordinarily, six hundred bushels of corn and two thousand 
bushels of potatoes. He would save fifty bushels corn 
for his pony, and sell the balance at twenty-five cents a 
bushel, netting one hundred and thirty-seven dollars and 
fifty cents. Of the potatoes, he might save one hundred 
bushels for his own use and for seed, and sell the rest at 
twenty-five cents per bushel — netting four hundred and 
seventy-five dollars. Thus we have the statement of his 
income and expenditures : 

Annual Income from field products $612 50 

" Expenditure for food and clothing, etc $12 98 

Taxes, 50 cents on the $100 of realty 1 00—13 98 

Net annual profit $598 52 

This he would probably send to Houston or Galveston 
or San Antonio, to be invested in morto^as^es on the real 
estate of widows, bearing twelve per cent. These pledges 
would of course be forfeited, and he would in a few years 
find himself the owner of storehouses of brick and stone, 
receiving a large annual rental. It is at this point that 
the Devil may step in and cheat him of all his philosophy 
and holiness, and he be confronted at last with the hard 
conditions of the camel, to go through the eye of a needle 
or be lost. It is thus that men grow rich. 

Incomprehensible. 

And when I think of the fat comforts of this anchorite 

—barring the peccaries — and his easy road into wealth, I 

cannot but wonder at the singular folly of some men, who, 

in spite of pinching penury, will stay in the cities ; the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 169 

seedy lawyers, the quaking merchants, and the poor editors. 
I know some of these whose bellies are said to have become 
accustomed to no other food but smoked herring and water- 
crackers, with such tit-bits as they may pick up in saloons 
during lunch time. And yet they will stay there and put 
up with all of this hard fare, when they could come to 
these nooks, and live on the fat of the land and grow rich. 
One of these pinched and purple men remarked to me that 
what he suffered here, he would not suffer in heaven. I 
told him I thought there was no need of his suffering either 
here or in heaven, and the suffering which we bring upon 
ourselves by willful blindness is no recommendation to us 
in another world ; wherein I spoke of my judgment, not 
of my knowledge.* 

Elevated. 

Rising out of the cove, I felt myself lifted distinctly far 
above the vale of the Guadalupe. It is two thousand feet 
or more above the sea. The clear atmosphere enabled me 
to see that the country beyond the Guadalupe, though ele- 
vated, sits much below it, and in the north and west it 
rises by steps. As far as I could sweep to the north and 
west with my glass, it is a region of ridges, mountains, 
ravines, valleys and table-lands, all covered with a thin 
growth of oak or thickets of cedar. Only the valleys and 
table-lands are arable ; but all is excellent for stock. It 
is a vast solitude, in which no one dwells, but is frequently 
scoured by the stockmen, gathering beeves or branding 
calves. It is populous of bears, panthers, wolves and pec- 
carries, and an occasional dread Comanche. The sportsman 
cannot go amiss for a jolly time, and may lose his scalp. 

* I have known several instances of men in Texas leading the solitary life 
of the anchorite, and finally emerging with more money than Ihey knew what to 
do with. Some embarked in trade in cities, bnt usually went back to solitude 
after a short venture. A few were killed by Indians and one went crazy. I 
have not known one yet to get married. 

8 



170 two thousand miles in texas on horseback. 

Dismal. 

A few miles over the lofty ridge, I descended into a 
deep, narrow gorge, down which ran a brook. The timber 
and brush were so thick, and the walls of stone on each 
side so close and high that the sun was quite shut out. 
Everything was so still that the clangor of my horse's feet 
over the occasional piles of loose rock, was painful, and 
went out and re-echoed through the gorge. The country 
looked murderous and Indiany, and a suspicion came to my 
mind that the red rascals might hear the noise. I became 
as melancholy as the gorge, and fain would creep along as 
stealthily as a fox. A bird occasionally flitted across my 
path, and the sound of his wings was oppressive. How 
would the war-whoop of a painted savage sound through 
this melancholy vale ? The reflection almost made my 
blood run cold. I would not care so much if he would 
come one at a time and meet me in the open field ; but 
how, if out of that dark thicket that I must pass through, 
he should, unseen, despatch an arrow through my heart ! 

Unearthly ? 

The water in the limpid brook looked so cool and re- 
freshing that I dismounted to take a drink. I kneeled 
down, with my knees upon a rock, my left hand on another, 
and thus poised over the stream, inclined downward till 
my lips touched the water. I had thrown my bridle over 
the limb of a tree. While in this graceful position, my 
ears were suddenly assaulted with an unearthly sound : so 
it appeared. I felt my hat lifted up on my head, and 
sweat broke out on my brow. I seized the bridle hastily 
and leaped into the saddle. My horse seemed agitated, 
probably catching the infection from myself. I heard the 
noise again, apparently from the bluff over the chasm, a 
hundred jai*ds below, and instantly, when it ceased, a loud 



TWO THOCSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 171 

" ha ! ha — ha ! ha ! ha ! " — broke out from the brush not 
twenty steps below me, as it seemed. 

I cannot say exactly how I felt at this moment, but a 
grim resolution suddenly nerved me, and I laughed a little 
laugh as I determined to give them the best I had. Were 
they painted, furious Indians who were after me, or had I 
unintentionally disturbed a nest of witches in their infernal 
orgies ? Again the noise from the liill, and again the 
jolly "ha\ ha! — ha! ha! — ha-ha-ha — h — a — h!" from 
the brush. Just then I heard a noise in the brush, as of a 
rotten limb falling from a tree, and a large owl flew out 
and lit on a limb projecting over the road. There he sat 
about a second and then burst forth with that same loud 
devil-mav-care laus^hter, to which that other thin 2^ of the 
bluff responded with his remarkable note, wliich I had 
taken to be the war-whoop of a Comanche chief I 

I felt that I had a good joke on myself, and laughed 
at my weakness. 

But no human being, riding through an Indian coun- 
try and hearing this Texas owl the first time, would ever 
think owl once, while he would think Indian fifty times. 
He might occasionally think wolf, as I did. These owls 
soon got together, and the racket they raised was aston- 
ishing. One would break out with his long whoop, and the 
other would join with a great burst of laughter, as if his 
sides would burst. Knowing what they were, no one could 
hear them without joining in their fun. They are not so 
large as the boo-hoo owls of the dark bottoms of the older 
States, and on seeing them, one is surprised at the pro- 
digious noise they can get out of their mouths. They are 
about the same in color as the Virginia owl, and have e\^es 
that stare at you as if they were stark mad. Though flour- 
ishing mostly in the night and evening, they are not nearly 
so nocturnal as their cousins, for their loud lauglUer and 
war-whoop may often be heard at mid-day. It is impossible 



172 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

to express their war-whoop in words or syllables. The young 
Texans say it is : " Miss Bettie cook — for me — and who 
cook — for — you all ? " and some of them can mimic him so 
precisely that not even an owl could tell the difference. 
Indians in the settlements also frequently imitate both 
their whoop and their laughter. 

i 

Piscine. 

The brook debouched into a creek whose name is "Wolf, 
which also a few miles further down becomes the Per- 
dinalis river. The Wolf valley is wider than the other, 
but still it is more a gorge than a valley, whose soil is 
sometimes covered with masses of shivered rock hurled 
from the precipitous hills. It has some excellent land, 
but no one dwells here, it being abandoned to wolves, and 
perhaps to rattlesnakes. I stopped on a grassy plot to 
graze my horse, and while he grazed I studied the nature 
of Wolf Creek. It was literally alive with brook trout,* 
and these were not in the deep pools only, but in places so 
shallow that their fins and backs glittered above the sur- 
face. No need of rod and line here. A diminutive pistol 
would do, or simply stealing upon the wary fellows in the 
shallows and damming them up with a few stones, so as 
to prevent egress : then wade in and catch to your heart's 
content. Wagon loads might be captured in this creek in 
this manner. This j)redatory fish seems to delight in shal- 
low water ; else he crowds into it in pursuit of the smaller fry. 
They are from a little finger in size to four pounds weight. 

Some of the pools of this creek were so still and dark- 
blue that I was tempted to explore them, and with a 
thirty-foot rope found no bottom. This is peculiar and 
almost unaccountable for so small a stream, f So far as I 

* Not Salmo fontinalis, but probaWj'^ gi'ystes salmcAdes. 

t These deep holes are said to be numerous in the Perdinalis. Some of them 
are circular and of unknown depth. They may be fountains issuing far below, 
whose buoyancy prevents the stone from sinking. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 173 

could judge, the banks of these pools were either perpen- 
dicular or shelved under. I was struck with the absence 
of birds in this gorge-ous, rock-ribbed and caverned coun- 
try. No duck swam on the blue pools, and not even 
a woodpecker pecked on the trees. It was solitude 
profound. 



VI. 

Crossed the creek and journeyed onward. Rocks ; 
mountainous rocks ; terrific rocks. A country given over 
to witches, gorges, and Jiorresco referens. Had I a com- 
panion, I think I would like to encamp in these shudder- 
ing wilds one night, to hear what manner of things prowl 
through them in darkness. But without a companion it 
would not be so comfortable. Misery loves company. 



VII. 

My path diverged from the creek, and led abruptly up 
a gorge, northwest, while my course should be nearly east. 
Cut off from the direct route by rocks, terrific rocks ; 
hills, tremendous hills, which no man may cross — not even 
a goat ; not even a rat ; not even a snake ; not even a 
snail, though supplied with glue to help him climb. This 
is Alpine. 



VIII. 

Granitic Explosion". — The Primeval World. 

A FEW miles np the gorge, the path turned abruptly 
east, and I was not surprised to see before me a 
grand outburst of granite. Cretaceous rocks rested un • 
disturbed, in horizontal layers, in the valleys and ravines 
at its feet. This, then, is evidently the top of a great 
mountain of the primeval world — one of the first foot- 
stools planted by the Almighty upon the molten orb. It 
is probably the only island that rose above the Primeval 
Ocean in a circumference of some thousands of miles ; for 
though outbursts of granite occur frequently north of this, 
the nptilted strata at the base show that the upheaval 
took place long after the territory about them had been 
formed. If not the oldest spot on earth, I am justified in 
claiming it as old as any. It rose into being when the 
young world was an orb of liquid fire, and the waves of 
this fiery ocean thundered at its base. How do we know 
that the winged messengers of the deep may not have 
often stopped on this rock to rest ? It stood sentinel over 
the boiling Azoic Sea ; watched the slow formation of the 
solid earth at its feet ; saw the advent of man, and will 
probably see his departure. And yet there is nothing re- 
markably striking in his appearance : a bald-headed, 
weather-beaten, very unpretentious old rock. To view 
him unobservincrlv, vou would never take him to be 
the grand old historian, philosopher and prophet that 
he is. 



two thousand miles in texas on horseback. 175 

Earthquake Thoughts. 

I could not help but measure in my mind the prodi- 
gious height of this old historian when he stood in the 
midst of the original fier}^ sea. If the central fires are 
eighty miles below us, as the philosophers say, then the 
historian's was all of that height, and may be yet, for his 
feet are still bathed in the central fires. What an enor- 
mous time did it take the successive oceans to erect about 
him the immense breastwork of stone until it has left only 
a few hundred feet of his ancient head uncovered ! The 
world is old, very old ; old enough to drop into its grave. 
Perhaps it already has one foot in the grave. 

But it is probable that in regions built exclusively, or 
nearly so, of granite and primitive rocks, the crust of the 
earth may be thin, and the heaving and tossing of the cen- 
tral fires quite near. This is made almost certain by the fre- 
quency of earthquake shocks in snch regions, and their in- 
frequency or total absence elsewhere. In Tertiary regions, 
the crust of the earth is so thick and strong that the cen- 
tral forces are held in check and driven to the primitive 
regions to do their destructive work. Thus Manhattan 
and New England are treated almost every year to several 
little earthquake oscillations, but these are never felt in 
the thick Tertiaries. Indeed, I believe that such a thing 
as an earthquake has never been known in a Tertiary 
region. Such regions were built up carefully, quietly and 
peaceably by the sea, every joint closely welded together : 
this took eons of ages to perform ; while the granitic re- 
gions were tossed up by the central forces in gigantic 
spasms, out of the fiery pit ; leaving rents and chasms, and 
the work not half performed. 



IX. 

Eocks — granitic rocks — Cretaceous rocks ; enough to 
lav the foundations of a new world. 



X. 



The Promised Land. 

FINALLY, as the sun was near its setting, a glorious 
view burst ujDon me. It was a wide expanse of level 
country, thickly dotted with farms and covered with for- 
est. But beyond it in every direction save the north, rose 
rocks, mountainous rocks. It was the first view of human 
habitation since early morn, and the effect upon both horse 
and rider was exhilarating. So the wandering and jaded 
Israelites felt when they beheld Canaan from the heights 
of Pisgah. He that has never travelled a whole day over 
a rough and uninhabited region, can never appreciate the 
music of a farm-yard cock. Near the close of such a day 
it is the sweetest of melodies — suggestive in every note, of 
Avarm fire-sides, smoking viands and delicious rest. De- 
scending the eminence, [ entered the level expanse, and 
just as night fell, rode into 

Fkedericksburg. 

This is a town of three thousand people, of whom at 
least four-fifths are Germans. It is built of stone, and has 
decidedly the air of a little city. I could not have expected 
to see a town so pretentious jammed away in these rocks, 
and so remote. It is brisk and busy, as the numerous 
'' floating population " at every hand attests. It has three 
flouring mills, with a joint capacity of about three hundred 
barrels a day, and its chief industry is based upon the manu- 



TWO THOUSAIs^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 177 

facture and sale of flour. It supplies a considerable part 
of the consumption of San Antonio, and nearly all the 
military posts of the frontier. This trade attracts to it a 
considerable trade in other lines. The yield of wheat in 
the vicinity is twenty to thirty bushels per acre. Wine- 
making is also an industry, though only followed as an ad- 
junct to other business. The mountains are loaded in their 
season with the ^' mountain grape " — black and about the 
size of a buck-shot — and from this they make a sprightly, 
purple wine. 

Fredericksburg was founded by a German colony, about 
the time the romantic Braunfels planted the city that 
bears his name. They named it in honor of the Prussian 
Crown Prince, Frederick William — he that is now emperor 
of Germany. It had a hard time in its infancy, and suf- 
fered greatly from Indians. At one time they were pressed 
so hard by the Indians, that they entered into a treaty 
with them, one of the conditions of which was that the 
whites and Indians should intermarry and raise families 
together. One German youth fulfilled the treaty stipula- 
tion by taking a squaw, but when the Indian bucks, naked 
and painted, came to take the German lassies, they would 
not consent, and the war broke out afresh. Finally, by 
the aid of the Texas Rangers, the Indians were expelled. 
Still, every now and then, they make forays upon the 
country people to avenge the slight put upon them by the 
German girls. 

If Fredericksburg is ever reached by a railroad from 
the lower country, it will be from its rear, or the west. A 
narrow gauge is practicable by the route that I travelled 
from Athena, by following the valleys, gorges and ravines ; 
but from any other direction it is sealed up by rocks, 
mountainous rocks, interminable rocks. It seems singular 
that the German colony should have pitched upon this 
locality. 

8* 



178 two thousand miles in texas ok horsebacki 

The Sort of People you See. 

Slept well, and remained in Fredericksburg all day. 

Here one first appreciates that he is on the frontier, 
where it behooves him to take care of himself. Every 
man one sees coming into the city has his six-shooter, and 
many have their rifles or shot-guns besides. They are 
roughly clad, some in buckskins. Those coming with 
wagon trains from remote settlements, are particularly of 
this descrij)tion. A stalwart, robust set. And though I 
mingled freely among them, I received nothing but cour- 
teous treatment, and saw none who received not the same. 
These people rarely engage in difficulties, but when they 
do they are dangerous. Kever put your hands on your 
pistol, say they, but if you do, shoot quick. They are not 
a familiar folk, and do not address a stranger unless spo- 
ken to. They impress me as a highly individualized and 
manly race. The habit of universal arms-bearing has 
grown more from the necessity of protection against In- 
dians, than a natural penchant for weapons. The people 
of the town share to some degree their simplicity of dress, 
but not their weapons. 



DIVISION lY. 



I. 

Indiai^ Talk. 



THE few to whom I spoke of my trip advised me not 
to proceed beyond Fredericksburg alone, saying few 

ever did so unless under urgent necessity. They held that 
one was not absolutely safe even on the road to San Anto- 
nio ; for though he might go through in safety ninety-nine 
times, yet on the one-hundredth he might lose his scalp : 
the Indian hovered over the skirts, and, like death, ye 
know not the day nor the hour he cometh. They spake 
of trains which would be on the road in a day or two, ad- 

. vising me to wait on their company ; but when I did not 
relent, they undertook to instruct me in Indian warfare. 
If you see them, said they, depend upon your horse's 
heels, and if pressed too hard, take to the brush : there 
the Indian will not pursue you, for he dreads a hidden 
foe, armed with our destructive guns. He knows that 
one or more must fall in the effort to secure you, and as 
each will think it likely that this fate may be his own, they 
will finally conclude that you are not worth the sacrifice, 
and let you alone. These marauding Indians are mostly 
Comanches, generally armed with bows and arrows, but, 
said they, they can flirt these arrows through a buffalo at 
fifty yards. One said that he had seen the spike of an 



180 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

arrow go through the tough spoke of a wagon wheel. I 
had great confidence in my formidable armament and my 
horse's heels, and came deliberately to the conclusion that 
I was so ugly a customer that the Indians would probably 
be willing to give me a wide berth, if I would treat them 
with like civility. Moreover, I thought if I could not 
select my company, I would prefer to have none, or even 
that of an occasional straggling Indian. I have sometimes 
had some most intolerable bores in road acquaintance, 
and one does not know but that they may be dishonest. 
Therefore, on the second morning after my arrival, I filled 
my haversack with crackers and chips of dried beef, and 
departed from Fredericksburg, northwest. 

Fogs and Cloud-Bursts. 

A very thick fog rested in the ravines and valleys, and 
against the sides of the mountains. It was so thick that 
as I rode through it my gun dripped with water, and my 
beard and woolen coat were saturated. The water depos- 
ited by it was equal to a nice shower. And yet this is in 
a lofty mountainous region, where there are no expanses 
of water, and no streams but brooks. This fog seemed to 
me a cloud which had fallen bodily to the earth. Eesting 
against the sides of the mountains, it had precisely the 
appearance of a cumulus. They say that in this region 
cloud-bursts are not uncommon : that is, a cloud suddenly 
letting go all hold in the upper regions and tumbling to 
the earth, discharging a young ocean at once. I myself 
once witnessed one of these. I was standing on the bank 
of a dry ravine which headed at the foot of a mountain 
near by. Suddenly a roaring torrent rushed down the 
ravine and overspread its banks. Looking to the moun- 
tain, it was enveloped in a dense, agitated fog ; and though 
light clouds were overhead, not a drop of water had fallen 
where I was. Those with me called this a water-spout, 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 181 

but it struck me as a tumbled-down cloud. At certain 
seasons, these unjorecedented fogs appear every morning 
in the mountainous regions of Western Texas, and the 
rancheros consider them valuable for crops. It is remark- 
able that they occur only during seasons of drought, and 
are confined to the valleys and flanks of mountains. They 
do not dispense their benefits over districts incapable of 
tillage. * 

Lost Eocks. — The Texas Cataclysm. 

My attention was attracted to a number of stones lying 
about in the open post-oak forest. Some of tliese are of 
fantastic form, and look like ruins. Some stand bolt up- 
right like pillars. In the level forest there are no other 
rocks but these. The formation about them is cretaceous, 
while they, in every instance, are granite or gneiss, or a 
very compact, almost vitreous sandstone. They were not 
formed here ; they were not protruded from below : they 
are away from their home, and are true '4ost rocks." 
Whence came these rocks, and how did they get here . 
There are no mountains near from which they could have 
been projected by the ordinary agencies by which boulders 
are precipitated into valleys. Is this glacial ? To con- 
clude that it is, would be to fly into the face of geologists, 
who maintain that the remarkable invasion of flood and ice 
from the Pole, did not reach below the line of the Ohio. 
And yet it is certain that these rocks were borne here by 
some extraordinary force. 

As I rode along, the boulders increased in number and 
size, showing that the force that had borne them came 
from the west or northwest, and that I was approaching 
the district whence Ihey came. At last the level forest 
terminated at a creek, beyond which rose a range of dark 

* These remarkable fogs may result from the almost thermal waters of the 
streams that gush up out of the Cretaceous formation of Texas, being so much 
warmer than the air, which has been chilled during the night. 



182 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IIT TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

colored hills. Entering them I found them composed of 
precisely the same material as the boulders, and at once 
recognized their parent bed. 

I first saw these rocks within a short distance of Fred- 
ericksburg, and this range of primitive hills is fifteen miles 
northwest ; so that they have been transported ten to 
twelve miles certainly, and perhaps some of them much 
further. Some are many tons in weight. Now what was 
the giant that tore these 1)oulders from the parent rock 
and hurled them this distance ? That giant was of pro- 
digious strength indeed. 

The force that did it was probably exerted long anterior 
to the Glacial Flood, and was short and convulsive in its 
action. It deposited no vast heaps of clay, gravel, and 
rounded pebbles, as the glacial did in its long prevalence 
over the northern regions. It was one immense, tremen- 
dous exertion of force, passing away as suddenly as it 
came. Its ancient date is attested by the fact that the 
masses of rock that were hurled into the valley at the foot 
of the hills, have been completely covered up by the slow 
accumulation of the wash and debris of ages, and that no 
rocks of recent date are among the boulders. It is my be- 
lief that this force was exerted at the close of the Creta- 
ceous epoch by the upheaval of the great plateau of the 
Eocky Mountains, and the vast plains that border it on the 
east. At that time the ocean covered all that region ex- 
cept a few Primitive, Silurian and Carboniferous districts, 
and was hurled southeastward in one tremendous surge, 
and did not stop till it fell below the Cretaceous wall that 
runs north of San Antonio and New Braunfels. There it 
rested and became quiet, having been dispossessed, by the 
action of the turbulent central fires, of a vast domain. 
This idea has not been suggested, so far as I know, by any 
who have written of the geology of America, but I give it 
in great confidence that it will be found correct. I can 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 183 

find no other hypothesis which will account for the singu- 
lar phenomena before me. 

This rano^e of azoic hills at that time stood above the 
water, and the dispossessed ocean, hurled back nearly two 
thousand miles at one sweep, struck it with inconceivable 
fury, ripping up the solid rock and transporting the frag- 
ments miles away. It seems almost inconceivable that 
such masses of rock could be borne so great a distance by 
water alone ; but it must be recollected that oceanic power 
under such circumstances is inconceivably great. 

The fantastic form of many of the rocks is the result of 
corroding atmospheric agencies. Some are crowned with 
blocks of stone resembling Dutch cheeses. The child of 
fire, granite, seems to be the only sufferer from this de- 
gradation ; the gneiss and vitreous sandstone having appar- 
ently undergone no change at all. If one had any data by 
which he could estimate the waste of granite when exposed 
to the atmosphere in separate blocks, he could get a fair 
idea from these boulders, of how much time has elapsed 
since the upheaval of the Cretaceous.* 

The Primitive Hills. 

These primitive hills are dark, squatty, well rounded 
protuberances, resembling heaps of stone upon which soil 
has been lightly scattered. They are so bare that a goat 
could hardly pick his rations upon them. If they are a 
fair representation of what the earth was in its early stages, 
nothing could have been more bleak and desolate. No 
bird, insect, reptile or animal, flew, crept, crawled or walked 
over its inhospitable rocks ; and no vegetation existed. 
And such, almost, is this primitive district to-day. As 
God made it, myriads of ages ago, still it is, with aspect 

* Lost rocks may be seen almost anywhere near primitive hills in Texas, 
streaming out from them in an easterly or south-easterly direction. In Llano 
County, on the Fredericksburg road, they are particularly numerous. 



184 TWO THOUSAN^D MILES II^" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

scarcely softened. Yet in the winding vales between the pro- 
tuberances; there is sometimes a pretty little lawn of rich 
crisp grass, with groves of dwarfed black-oak and live-oak. 
Sometimes on the eastern or south-eastern exposure of the 
protuberances, thickets of dwarfed and gnarled cedars 
drag out a precarious existence. What they -draw their 
subsistence from, seems past finding out. The only sign 
of animal life is a buzzard floating here and there at a 
great altitude. I notice that against the eastern side of 
these mountains, there are almost invariably huge masses 
of detached rock, while on the opposite side there are few, 
and often none. This is another proof of the great spas- 
modic billow that swept over them from the west or north- 
west. * 

Birds that are Peculiar. 

My horse's hoofs clanked over these stony witnesses of 
the primeval desolation some ten miles, when I descended 

* This primitive district, of which these hills form the southern boundary, is 
one full of interest to the mineralogist. .Gold and silver have been found at 
many places, and several mining parties are now at work for these minerals, 
with what success is not yet known. Magnetic iron ore, that smelts seventy to 
eighty per cent pure iron, exists in quantities apparently inexhaustible. Not 
far from the road followed by our traveller, in Llano County, is a mass of this 
ore, nine hundred feet long and five hundred feet wide, rising thirty feet above 
its visible base. It has been reduced and used to a small extent, and bhxcksmiths 
pronounce it the same as the celebrated Swedish iron which is manufactured 
from precisely similar ore. This mass of iron lies between granite ridges, is 
traversed by quartz veins, was evidently upheaved with the granite, and is 
therefore a true metallic vein. In the same locality are other masses or beds of 
iron of equal if not gi-eater extent. It is a timbered region, offering plenty of 
charcoal, and limestone for flux abounds in the vicinity. Stratite or soapstone 
is near at hand in large beds. When this wonderful iron region is penetrated by 
a railroad, these deposits will become of immense value. The manufacture of 
railroad iron for the railroads of Texas alone, would make a great business. It 
is, without much doubt, the richest deposit of iron on the American continent. 

A four-foot vein of coal has been discovered in the vicinity, in a depression 
between the granitic and metamorphic hills ; and the carboniferous formation 
has a wide development a day's journey to the north, in which coal is known 
to abound. Salt is manufactured from well-water, issuing from Silurian rocks. 
Indeed, Llano County is a remarkable mineral region, and will no doubt one 
day be famous for its minerals. 



TWO THOUSAKD MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 185 

into a secluded valley, running north-east. No one 
dwells in it, and the aspect of the whole country 
was decidedly lonesome ; but the brook was sparkling and 
the grass good, and I halted for noon-day rest. I wan- 
dered on foot some hundred yards np the brook and shot 
a peculiar bird with my pistol ; not that I wanted to eat 
him, but to study him, for he is a strange creature. Some 
call him the bird of Paradise, and others the chaparral 
cock ; but he has a strong general resemblance to the 
female pea-fowl. He is a bit larger than a pigeon, but 
looks much larger by reason of his long legs, and a tail a 
foot to a foot and a half in length, which projects straight 
out and trails on the ground. He lives in secluded, bushy 
retreats, makes no note whatever, and when disturbed 
runs away with great fleetness. I have never seen them 
fly more than twenty to thirty feet, and its tail is so cum- 
bersome that I judge it cannot fly much further. Their 
short flights seem more of a hopping than a flying. They 
are said to be easily domesticated ; so that even old ones 
have been trained to visit farm- yards daily, where they 
wandered around almost as unconcerned as chickens. A 
lady told me she had quite a number that visited her every 
day to receive gifts of corn and wheat. At night they 
would slip away to the brush ; and they hid their nests so 
well she could never find them. Although inhabiting 
such secluded districts and flying so swiftly when they see 
you, they have a singularly sweet and gentle look out of 
their large, soft black eyes, which are a prominent feature 
of their ensemble. They go almost always in pairs, and are 
seldom found east of the Colorado, and only in mountain- 
ous districts. 

The name, '^ bird of Paradise," has doubtless been given 
him on account of his elongated tail, like that of the Para- 
dise bird of the East ; or it may be connected with some 
pretty sentiment which the Texans may entertain for the 



186 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

bird. For he is as much protected from the murderous 
aim of the youthful sportsman, as the uuiversally beloved 
mocking-bird — the sweetest songster of the feathered tribe. 

I am at a loss where to place this bird, as an ornitholo- 
gist. It is said that not a single member of the family of 
the PhasianidcB has been found native in America ; but if 
this bird is not a variety of the pheasant — I am mistaken. 
In shape it is precisely similar to the European pheasant, 
and only lacks his size and gaudy plumage. 

Another curious Texas bird — which I have seen almost 
every day, but do not see here — is called by some the Mexi- 
can mocking-bird, and yet others not inappropriately call 
him, also, the bird of Paradise. He is the same in ap- 
pearance as the common mocking-bird, save that his colors 
are much bolder and more distinct, that he is much more 
gaudily dressed, and is ornamented with two long tail- 
feathers which curl outwards, gracefully and airily, toward 
the ends. The common mocking-bird appears very mod- 
est and homely beside him, but unfortunately he is gifted 
with none of the musical genius of that sweet bird. He 
has a note, but it is a mere squeak. Like the mocking- 
b'ird, he is fond of perching on the topmost branch of a 
tree, but instead of thrilling the neighborhood with his 
sweet minstrelsy, he amuses himself in looking out for and 
catching flies. He seems filled with great envy and dislike 
of his highly gifted but homely cousin, for when one hap- 
pens to come near him, he immediately assails him, and is 
joined in this ugly behavior by all his tribe in sight. Un- 
like the mocking-bird, he is rarely if ever found alone, but 
in little companies of several; if not absolutely together, 
yet separated but a little distance apart. The mocking- 
bird loves the haunts of men, by whom he seems to know 
instinctively that he is beloved ; but this fellow avoids 
them, and is generally found remote from their dwellings, 
even far beyond the limits of civilization. I believe he 



TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IK TEXAS O^ HORSEBACK. 18? 

rarely ventures east of the Colorado ; and he seems almost 
exclusively a prairie bird, as I have not seen him in tlie 
timbered regions. A tree he loves, but it must be in the 
open prairie, from which he has a wide prospect. One of 
his favorite perches is a tall spike of grass, or slender reed, 
on which he delights to sit and rock in the wind. But 
unmusical and vicious as he is, nothing can be more grace- 
ful than this bird on the wing. He has a way of asc^d- 
ing high in the air, with an easy, gentle motion— again 
descending in curves or circles to his perch, as if wishing 
to show his fine plumage and tail to most advantage. He 
seems always merry and happy, except when the true 
mocking-bird approaches him, and then he is simply vil- 
lainous. 

Not All Bad. 

Hence, it is not all bad. The primitive baldness or 
rugged hairiness prevails, but frequently a smooth scope 
of table-land intervenes, covered with post-oak forest, and 
the rocks do not always clank. Eunning through these 
forests are numerous strips of black, fertile land, in slight 
depressions, thick with underbrush and luxuriant grass. 
These are favorite haunts of deer ; for in nearly all such I 
encounter them in squads and sometimes herds. They 
gaze at me a moment, then switch their tails and depart. 
These strips often contain hundreds of acres, and would 
doubtless produce grand crops^ of grain, but no plow has 
ever touched them. These table-lands, lying between 
granitic hiJls, invariably begin and terminate at hollows, 
down which a brook runs and frets over innumerable rocks, 
and generally hidden under an entanglement of vine and 
brush. The rocks here exposed are generally sandstone,* 
probably of Cambrian age. On the table-lands, if such they 
may be properly called, noticed a true boulder occasion- 

* Calciferous sandstone ? 



188 TWO THOUSAND MILES 12^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 

ally, but no protruding rock. Lonesome exceedingly. 
Begin to grow weary even with myseil Won't I break 
down before my tri}3 is ended ? 

A DisAPPOiKTMEKT. — The Old Shepherd. 

Finally, the sun was sinking in the west, when I saw 
the first indication of humanity since leaving Fredericks- 
burg. 'Twas in a dell that might by courtesy be called a 
valley. 'Twas a flock of a thousand or fifteen hundred 
Mexican sheep, under the leadership of an old man and 
two dogs. Having a mind to hear the sound of human 
voice, I rode up to the old man and addressed him; but he 
was a Mexican, and shook his head and said simply — ^' 7io 
e7itie7ido.^'* I felt discouraged, and discharged some ob- 
jurgations upon the barbarous ignorance of the Mexicans, 
who will not learn the language of the people they live 
among. It is the rarest thing to find one who can speak 
an English word, even among those who have been in con- 
tact with Americans thirty or forty years. I tried fre- 
quently in San Antonio to speak with old Mexicans, 
who looked as grizzly as the hills, but they always re- 
sponded with that everlasting 710 entiendo. While return- 
ing from that city to New Braunfels, I had as sole com- 
panion in the carriage, a splendid Mexican woman who 
seemed the queen of the race. She had an imposing 
physique and all the charms of full-blown womanhood. 
I felt a strong desire to eagage her in conversation, as it 
seemed becoming to do under the circumstances ; but she 
shut me up, on my first venture, with a musical — '^Yo no 
liablo Englcs, senor ;"f and I sank back to my corner of 
the coach, where I remained disconsolate during the rest 
of the trip, which occupied four hours. I believed that I 
never looked so like a fool in my life, and I am sure that 
I never felt so like a fool as I did on that occasion. There 

* '' I do not understand.'" + "I do not speak English, Sir. 



TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 189 

we sat, face to face, two feet apart, but for all practical 
purposes the distance might have been a thousand. We 
occasionally looked at each other in a very silly way, 
and I fancied that she felt as stupid as myself. I was 
heartily glad when the journey ended. I fancied that I 
had a full foretaste of Plato's hell, which is to be plunged 
up to the ears in something that one ardently wants, and 
yet cannot get a taste of it. I have thought of this ad- 
venture a thousand times since, and wondered, had this 
lady and myself been forced to live alone together some 
months, how we would have got along, and what sort of 
language we would have formed. A compound of the best 
of the Spanish and the best of the English, would make a 
noble language indeed ; and I judge that is the sort of 
compound we would have made. I have thought also 
about the meaning of the first word we would mutually 
compound, but have arrived at no satisfactory conclusion 
in regard to it. 

The Mexicans of Texas are peculiar in this thick igno- 
rance of English, as nearly all other strangers learn it in a 
short time. The Americans themselves quickly pick up 
enough Spanish when thrown among the Mexicans, to get 
along with them very well, and even the negroes soon learn 
to talk it. I think this may be owing to the general dis- 
inclination of the Mexican to mental effort, and his con- 
tentment with stupidity ; but it may result partially from 
the toughness of our language. A young Mexican in San 
Antonio, who had been educated in Kentucky, said to me 
on this subject ; • * Many Mexicans read English and under- 
stand it well, but few try to speak it, because its pronuncia- 
tion is to them almost impossible. There is one language 
that a Mexican or Spaniard never can speak, unless bred 
to it from a child, and that is the French ; and after that 
comes the English. Many Mexican ladies in San Antonio 
speak English pretty well, but it fits their mouths so badly 



190 TWO TilO'JSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

that they cannot be prevailed on to speak it before strangers. 
They prefer to be a sealed music- box." It was one of those 
sealed music- boxes, though a pretty big one, that I had with 
me on that trip. I wish I had had the key to unlock it. 

And the old shepherd may be a music-box, too. Possi- 
bly. And I ride on reflecting what an admirable chance 
he has to turn philosopher, if he only had the stuff in him. 
Nothing to do but to wander over these hills and along 
these vales from morn until dusk, often stopping for hours 
to bask on a sunny slope. If I should turn shepherd, me- 
thinks I would also turn poet, or philosopher, or historian, 
in spite of myself ; for how can one lead such a life with- 
out eternally reflecting and projecting? And yet I dare 
say that all the thoughts that well up in this old man's 
mind in a day, could they be collected and weighed, would 
not balance against a humming-bird's pin-feather. His 
life is probably a continuous sleep, and when it is ended 
there is a bunch of bones to tell that a man had been. 
This is dreary consolation. What is life without those 
thoughts that wander through eternity ? — without knowl- 
edge — without ambition — without the restless desire to 
accomplish good ? To die like a rock tossed into the sea, 
and leave not a lipple behind ! This is not life ; it is 
vegetation — the life of the weed on the prairie. When the 
weed has lived its time, it dies and leaves a humus to en- 
rich tl\e soil. So when man dies, he leaves his bones to 
crumble into phosphate of lime, which at last will become 
good solid rock, which the husbandman will quarry to en- 
rich his grounds, or the architect to erect into some wall. 
Thus we go on doing good in spite of ourselves; for thus 
nature designed us. 

BuEN Retiro. 

Sunset found me on an eminence from which a glori- 
ous green valley, from three to five miles in width, spread 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 191 

out before me, winding among the rugged hills like a great 
river. Its banks are solid, precipitous walls of rock. Farm 
houses here and there look like white sails on the river, 
and a village in the distance seems a fleet at anchor. I 
descended the steep declivity and stopped at the village of 
Loyal Valley, thirty-five miles from Fredericksburg. 



11. 



Loyal Valley. — The German^s an"d a Higher 

ClVILIZATIOiq^. 

THIS is exclusively a German settlement ; and here 
the conviction impresses me that the Germans as a 
colonizing race, excel the Americans or any other race. 
In Texas they have certainly pnshed forward and possessed 
exposed points, far in advance of the Americans. It is 
said of Goldsmith that he touched no subject that he did not 
adorn ; and it may be truly said of the Germans, that they 
touch no country which they do not fill with beauty, hap- 
piness, and wealth. They have two marked characteris- 
tics which eminently fit them for colonizing : their singu- 
larly social disposition, and their universally good, and 
often high education. This social nature makes them love 
to live in communities, and every member becomes an im- 
portant social factor, whose well-being is inseparably con- 
nected with the well-being of the whole; and every one 
labors as hard as he can to be esteemed and fill his part 
well in this social life. Their education makes them as- 
pire for a higher civilization ; indeed, it is but a higher 
civilization ; and they express it in making their homes 
attractive and beautiful. Thus, let them take hold of the 
wildest country, and it soon blossoms like the rose, and 
becomes the seat of prosperity and contentment ; in other 
words, it becomes " home, sweet home." They advance in 
force, and once possessed, they cannot be dispossessed. The 
American is more isolated in his character ; he likes to 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 193 

stand upon his own bottom, without being rubbed against 
by neighbors, and hence scatters so badly that he cannot 
advance far into the wilderness, until the German communi- 
ties have preceded him and built bulwarks against savage 
incursions. Then he comes and locates his isolated farms. 
He does not set his heart upon them as a home, does not 
care to beautify them, as he has little taste in that direc- 
tion, and is prepared to pull up stakes and depart any 
time, if things do not go to suit. When the German stops, 
he is fully determined to make things suit him, and im- 
mediately goes to work to that end and accomplishes it. 

I notice that all the Germans here appear to speak 
English, and to prefer it to their own tongue. I remarked 
to the gentleman with whom I stopped, that I was sur- 
prised to see this in so isolated a German community. 
'^It is true," said he, *^ we are isolated, but we cannot tell 
how soon we may be inundated by Americans; and we 
want to be prepared for the flood wiien it comes. Besides, 
we often have Americans with us, and we should feel very 
awkward if we could not speak to them in their language. 
This is our home now, and we do not feel that we could be 
as good citizens as we want to be, unless we spoke our home 
language." I asked if the Germans learned English mostly 
by contact with Americans, or from books, '*By prac- 
ticing it," said he, ^^ among themselves, getting their start 
mostly from books." 

The more I see of the Germans, the more I think of 
them. They almost invariably have nice and happy homes, 
and always have something good to eat and drink. I am 
unable to say whether this latter is a cause or result of 
their high civilization ; but this is certain : a people who 
do not eat and drink well, are never of a high civilization ; 
and this will be noticed as niuch among private families 
as among" peoples and races. Poor, miserable, or coarse 
eating seems to dwarf the intellect and suppress every noble 
9 



194 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

aspiration of the heart. Thus, the Mexicans appear to live 
mainly upon onions and red pepper, and behold what a 
folk they are ! The Esquimaux lives mostly on oil and 
tallow, and behold him ! Tlie Hottentot lives mostly on 
squashes and pumpkins, and behold the thing that has the 
form of man ! I think it is very true that if you will find 
what a people put into their bellies, you will have no diffi- 
culty in judging what may be expected to come out of 
them in the way of character and talents. 

A Garden in a Wilderness. 

This is indeed a garden in a wilderness, a spot in w^hich 
one can linger and be happy. Here is a nursery in which 
sixty varieties of roses grow, and hundreds of the finest 
flora of three continents : sixty varieties of pear, forty of 
peach, and an army of apples, plums and grapes — all cul- 
tivated and arranged with taste and skill that cannot be 
excelled. It was curious to see such an industry in so 
isolated and remote a region ; and nothing could possibly 
indicate so well the higher civilization of the people of the 
valley, as the fact stated to me by the proprietor, that he 
had in them liberal and profitable customers. "I am 
sure,'*' said he, *'• that our valley will soon have as fine vine- 
yards, orchards and gardens as any country in the world, 
and I feel some little pride in the thought that it is I that 
am doing it." He held that people could not be happy and 
really blessed until they had vineyards and orchards ; in 
which view I heartily concurred. The proprietor is a 
German gentleman, of high educational attainments, and 
he is a blessing to Loyal Valley, and to remote regions 
bevond it. His liHit shines afar off.* 

The people of the valley are farmers, but all have their 
cattle, and some have herds of sheep. Wheat is the chief 
product. Their houses are stone, and often they have stone 

* Mr. J. O. Meusebach. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 195 

fences, though timber is abundant. They said they were 
not annoyed by Indians, because they were so isolated, and 
kept but few horses to tempt them. '^They think we are 
too poor," said they, '^ to steal from." 

Physical Features. 

This valley is a very remarkable one ; insomuch that it 
greatly worried my studying cap. It is thirty or forty 
miles long, and as big where it begins as where it ends. 
It lies between solid stone walls, from one hundred and 
fifty to three hundred feet high, and is a true canyon. It 
has no running stream, but in place of it a channel 
with numerous deep pools. It seems to me that it is the 
bed of an ancient river, which might have flowed south- 
west, though its drainage is now in the opposite direction. 
It is either this, or the earth was disrupted by a great ex- 
plosion, leaving a vast chasm three to five miles in width, 
which has been gradually filling up by silt from the higher 
land ; or the bottom must have sunken and fallen to its 
present pitch. But whatever cause may have produced it, 
it is certainly one of the most charming regions of Texas. 
The soil is black and very fertile, and groves of live-oak 
occur at short intervals. The walls appear to be of Silurian 
age, and consist of limestone as far as I noticed them. 

How ONE Feels when He cannot tell which End 

TO Take. 

Rising above the wall, I rode through a fine forest of 
post-oak and black-jack, in which deer and squirrels 
swarmed. A remarkable strip of exceedingly rich, land 
with its jungle alive with these animals, tempted me 
to stray into it. When I turned out of it, I pursued 
the general direction of the road I had left, hoping to 
strike it obliquely after a time. I was checked up a while 
by a ravine, which seemed to wind in every possible direc- 



196 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

tion. so that after crossing it three or four times, I was 
still unable to say on which side I was. In this singular 
}30sition I got so completely wrapped np that I hardly 
knew my head from a shot-gun, but finally struck out on a 
course which seemed to be correct. I rode into a flock of 
peccaries which immediately bristled up and commenced 
popping their jaws. Wishing to provoke them to see 
^v]v.it they would do, I rode slowly toward them, while 
they stood hoofing and popping, and seizing a piece of 
dead branch, threw it in their midst, at the same time call- 
ing them an ugly name. They charged me instantly, 
raising an infernal noise, and my horse taking fright, 
dashed through the woods at wild speed, my head being in 
great danger of being shorn off by a limb. I was unable 
to stop him until we reached another ravine, at least a 
quarter of a mile from where we bounced the peccaries, 
and here I found myself again confused. However, I got 
myself straight at last, or thought I did, and rode on until 
I found the road; but was totally unable to say whether 
my course lay to the right or left. It was the road un- 
doubtedly, but which end was which ? I was seized with 
a feeling of drivelling idiocy, in which I seemed not to 
have a vestige of mind left. I felt like a piece of dry 
sponge, to be blown about by the winds ; I had a most dis- 
tressing sense of idiocy. My horse seemed to be even a 
bigger fool, and I appealed to him in vain to show me the 
way — he insisting that I should show him. Finally I re- 
covered sense enough to recollect that I had a compass in 
my coat pocket. This was tied behind the saddle, and I 
had sense enough to nndo the bundle. The way the com- 
pass indicated I should go, now seemed all wrong, but I 
pursued it and by degrees my senses returned, and I found 
I was right. If any one has been in similar circumstances, 
he will remember what an exceeding drivelling idiocy he 
felt. If I fall into such condition again, having no com- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 197 

pass, I will lie down to sleep until the idiocy has passed. 
I have seen wild geese frequently attacked by the same 
sort of stupidity, while on their annual passage. During 
the occultation they sail around in circles, now this way 
and then that way, until they appear to have gone utterly 
crazy, and iSnally settle on the ground in a state of ex- 
haustion and desperation. 

The Compass and Aurora. 

And right here I cannot but think of the vast results 
that have sprung from the discovery of that singular law 
of nature which attracts the needle toward the pole. 
What multitudes has it saved from idiocy and starvation, 
and what revolutions and achievements have followed in 
its wake ? The discovery of no other thing has wrought 
such vast results to mankind ; for without it, this great 
constellation of States would not exist. The space cov- 
ered by them would still be a wilderness, tenanted by 
beasts and savages ; the seas would be almost as sail- 
less as those that covered the primeval world, and civiliza- 
tion would never have lighted its torch beyond Europe 
and the shores of Asia. It is probable that civilization 
would finally have been extinguished, and the beneficent 
influences of Christianity died with it in its cradle. The 
natural law under which this strange attraction exists, is, 
to my mind, an unexplained mystery, like the beautiful 
Aurora which lifts its gaudy curtains over the pole. Per- 
haps it is the Aurora that- has charmed the needle, and 
makes it always look to behold it. I see in them another 
evidence of the Grand Architect, who finds beautiful and 
mysterious ways to lead us to his work. It is remark- 
able that His ways are all of infinite beauty. He unfolded 
the gaudy curtains of Aurora, and behold, the needle leapt 
up to it and points tremblingly to it forever ; and all the 
seas immediately became white with sails, and Christianity 



198 TWO THOUSAIn'D miles in TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

and civilization went forth hand in hand to illumine all 
the dark places of the world ! Little instrument, what a 
revolution has been that caused by thee ! The stars sang 
together when thou wert born ! 

Ruin. — The Young Geologist. 

Passed out of the forest into a congeries of terrific hills ; 
black, brown, and grey ; some misshappen and jagged, and 
others leaning over abysses, as if contemplating the ruin 
below them. Here the volcanic forces thundered, ripped up 
the bowels of the earth, tossed the ancient strata hither 
and thither, and poured out their molten floods. It is a 
seat of confusion almost unequalled — '^ of desolation lorn 
and wild." The rocks are granite, gneiss, porphyry, 
masses of quartz, slates, agates, and glittering micaceous 
sandstones. Some of the mountains are split into halves 
and quarters, and the detached portions thrown into 
chasms and gorges at their feet, in immense piles of ruin. 
The disturbances here must have been of long continu- 
ance often repeated. The older granite is upheaved and 
pierced by new discharges of granite, and the strati- 
fled rocks are tossed upward and pitched downward in 
every conceivable direction ; sometimes lying across each 
other in promiscuous heaps, like piles of fagots thrown to- 
gether by urchins for a bonfire. The date of these dis- 
turbances is probably back in the Silurian, and this for- 
saken region has lain in ruin ever since. It was above the 
surface when the great tidal wave swept from the north- 
west, for its boulders are strewn from the foot of the hills 
to Loyal Valley. 

This is the sanctum sanctorum of the young geologist — a 
retreat in which his devotions to science would rarely be 
disturbed. Let him put this country together again, as it 
was before the tumultuous central fires tossed it into atoms, 
and he will have learned it all. He might build a little 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 199 

palace of agates of all colors, or micaceous sandstones tliat 
sparkle of silver, supported on pillars of porphyry, and 
adorned with chambers of quartz crystal. Or if he be not 
architecturally inclined, I doubt not he could find some 
glorious grotto under the hills, spangled with crystal and 
gems, where he and his nymph might revel in the luxury 
of love and learning ; for surely he would not be without 
a nymph. Would not such a residence with some fairy of 
these grottoes be charming ? With her wand she might 
bring him honey from the hills, or sparkling wine from 
the fountains in the rock, and he could sip ambrosia from 
her lips. Perhaps with that same wand she might touch 
his forehead, making his mind gush with brilliance, before 
which the clouds that cover the mystery of creation would 
be instantly dispelled •? Would it not be passing sweet to 
be taught, in such a place, science from the female lips 
and eyes of a young fairy ? Child of science — here is thy 
home ! Come hither — hasten hither ! 



11. 

There are no pretty little vales winding amid these 
ruins of the Silurian world. There are vales, but they are 
strewn with boulders that have thundered from the hills. 
The road winds amid the ruins like a ship tacking against 
a contrary wind ; now hither, now thither, but ever urging 
slowly ahead. I would not give three cents for ten square 
miles of this country, except as a school of science. 



III. 



The Froktiersmak. — The War of the Sheafs an^d 

Horns. 

I HAD loitered so much that darkness was on me the 
moment I emerged ont of the chaos into the valley of 
the river Llano, only twenty-three miles from Loyal Valley. 
I solicited entertainment at a small stone house — the first 
I had seen since morning — and it was accorded. My en- 
tertainer was a robust old man, as grizzly as the granite 
promontories, and in person quite as rugged. His face and 
lips were covered with a stiff greybeard, his head shingled, 
so that the crisp hair stuck upward like the quills of a por- 
cupine, and his waist and shoulders were Atlantean. He 
was evidently sixty years of age or beyond, but it was 
equally evident that he still retained the strength of a lion ; 
and that he would use it as a lion, should occasion make it 
at all necessary, no one could look upon him and doubt. 
His steel-grey eyes denoted caution and resolution ; in 
short, he looked like a man bred to rough things, and to 
the control of them, not courting danger, and the last to 
avoid it when it comes. He was of few words, and those 
straight to the point. He manifested the profoundest in- 
difference as to who I was or what was my business. I 
endeavored once or twice to pique his curiosity on these 
points, but he pushed it off. He treated me with all be- 
coming politeness, but no familiarity. He received me as 
a stranger, and was evidently resolved that I should depart 
as one. The poise of the old man was so perfect that it 



TWO TH0USA2!q"D MILES IK TEXAS OJ^ KORSEBACK. 201 

sometimes seemed to me almost burlesque. When he came 
out to meet me at the gate he had a book in his hand, 
which I afterwards learned was the poems of Robert Burns. 
It was about the last book I would have expected to see in 
his hands, and it caused me to gaze at him with all the 
more wonder. 

This county of Mason has the most evil reputation in 
Texas for dark deeds. Indeed, until latterly, war prevailed 
in it: neighbor shooting down neighbor as he would a wolf 
or hyena, and the law was a dead letter. I asked this man 
of few words what was the cause of this, not doubting that 
he had had his share in it. He said' the quarrel arose be- 
tween the farmers and stock-men, the latter being all 
Americans, and the former nearly all Germans. The 
farmers were too lazy or too negligent to build substantial 
fences about their fields, and the cattle broke in and de- 
stroyed their crops. The farmers, instead of making their 
fences strong, undertook to protect their crops by shooting 
their neighbors' cattle. It was useless to appeal to the law 
for redress or to correct the evil, for the small farmers 
greatly preponderated and would control all juries. To 
retaliate and repair the loss, the stock-men drove off the 
few cattle the farmers had, and sold them. This opened 
the warfare, and some thirty of the citizens were shot, 
some of them in the presence of their families. The usu- 
ally peaceful German was as ready to pull trigger as any- 
one, and from all I could learn from the old man, shared 
about equally with the Americans in the dark deeds. Mine 
host was evidently a partisan of the stock-men, and for all 
I know, one of their leaders. He remarked : " I hope it 
is all over. Enough blood has been shed to bring a bad 
name on our county, and satisfy all that no good can come 
in that way. There has been no shooting for sometime 
past. It is all with the farmers to stop this thing or 
continue it. If they continue to shoot our cattle for 
9* 



202 TWO THOUSAND MILES IIT TEXAS OIT HORSEBACK. 

breaking into their fields, which have no proper fences, 
the feud will go on, and no one knows where it will end. 
Let them build good fences or quit farming, and there will 
be peace. And there is no excuse for not building good 
fences where stone and timber abound. I am no farmer ; 
at least, that is not my trade, but I have strong fences 
about my fields, which no animal can break through. Why 
cannot they have the same ? If my fences were poor, I 
should expect my neighbors' cattle to break into my fields ; 
but the fault would be mine, not my neighbor's, and I 
would have no right to shoot his cattle — much less to 
shoot him."* 

* Mason county is now one of the most quiet in the State, and has been for 
some months. The feud between the cattle-men and farmers has ended, and per- 
manent peace seems to reign. 



III. 



SOFTEKED. 

A SHUCK mattress to him who rides over these 
mountains is sweeter than a bed of roses to the 
voluptuary. I have tested both, and I know. Venison 
and fresh trout from the Llano formed a conspicuous fea- 
ture of my breakfast, flanked by eggs, and cake and honey. 
Asking for my bill, the response was: *^I do not keep 
hotel ; you owe me nothing ; if you pass this way again, I 
will be pleased to have you stop." So much for this 
rugged old frontiersman, who loves Burns, and would 
probably not step round the corner to avoid any danger, 
whether from wild beasts, savages, or farmers who shoot 
his cattle. His most polite words were his last. I was 
not surprised at- his excellent degree of civilization after 
seeing how well he fed. 

River Llaxo. 

River Llano sparkles with almost Comal limpidity, and 
carries about that bulk of water. From its source to its 
mouth in the Colorado, it is perpetually singing or roaring 
over cascades ; sometimes creeping along silently a few 
hundred yards through deep chasms. Like Niagara, it 
has quarried its way through miles of solid rock, but the 
material it has labored in is infinitely harder, being 
mostly granite, gneiss, quartz, and massive iron. Occa- 
sionally the volcanic forces have come to its assistance, 
rending the obstructing rock and lifting it apart in per- 
pendicular walls. It is alive with perch, trout, eels and 
big-eyed, blue cat-fish, which take the hook eagerly, and 



204 TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

it is one of the most delightful retreats in the world for 
the sportsman. He may play Isaac Walton to his heart's 
content in its waters, and Nimrod on its banks, its forest 
and mountainous recesses, and the scenery is always beau- 
tiful or grand. Should he' wish occasionally to turn phi- 
losopher and study nature, its infinitely varied rocks and 
gems and minerals furnish studio and laboratory on every 
hand. For a water-power, I doubt if there is a river in 
the world, of no greater size and length, that is its equal. 
And yet not one ten-thousand-millionth of this enormous 
power is utilized. 

Its valley is usually about a mile wide, but often the 
elevations bathe their bases in its water on both sides. Its 
soil is of a reddish cast, derived from granite and porphyry, 
not so fertile as the valleys of most Texas streams, but 
yields abundantly of grain. It has this splendid advan- 
tage : there is hardly a foot of it that may not be irrigated 
with little cost of labor or money ; but, as easy as irriga- 
tion is, the people have little or none of it. They are 
mainly engaged in stock, and make agriculture a third- 
rate matter. The valley is thinly settled with a hospita- 
ble people. I notice that many of the ladies can walk bare- 
footed over rocks and pedrigals, and seem to prefer this 
way of locomotion. It is unnecessary to go beyond this 
fact to learn what their husbands are. The latter wore 
six-shooters and buckskin, and were bronzed and rugged. 
I imagine that few of them would stop to contemplate a 
daisy or tulip, or even a big sun-flower. They are Cossacks. * 



IV. 

Eode up the valley. Beautiful region; the dark Primi- 
tive hills across the river to the left ; the smooth valley 

* I wish to be understood thattliis remark is meant only for the lords of those 
ladies who walk barefooted over rocks. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 205 

before me, dotted with noble groves of live-oak, and ele- 
vated and smooth or njidulating woodlands to tlie right, 
covered with open forests of live-oak and post-oak, and 
occasional prairie lawns between. Eich mesquite grew 
everywhere. The timber on the river bank is mostly 
pecan, elm and ash. Air delightful. Elevation two thou- 
sand feet above the sea. White farmhouses at wide dis- 
tances basking in the sun-light. 

Fort Mason. — A Surprise. 

Some ten miles brought me to the capital of Mason 
County. It is a site that is all beauty. It sits on a lofty 
prairie, with a noble prospect of great circumference. To 
• him who approaches it, it seems a new Mecca, with its 
white walls and green foliage ; and when he enters It the 
pleasing impression is not dispelled. It is a village of 
seven or eight hundred people, whose houses are granite 
and other stones, and many of them are spacious and fine. 
This is the characteristic of all the stores, and they are 
numerous and carry large stocks. In- such a region I was 
surprised at such architecture and such wealth of com- 
merce. The conviction at once seized me that these people 
are of much greater population than I had supposed, and 
all rich. In the first conviction I was wrong, for I was 
assured that the entire population of the county did not 
exceed two thousand, spread over a thousand square miles 
of territory. In the latter I was right, for the merchants 
told me that they all have plenty of money, and spend it 
liberally for everything except dress. We have tried, said 
they, to introduce dressy notions, but not even the ladies 
will take to tliem. Said one : Were it not for the winter 
northers and summer heats, I believe all sorts would pre- 
fer the original dress — a good coat of skin and hair. It is 
not strange that men in such a region, and of such occu- 
pation, should care nothing for dress, except as covering 



206 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

from thorns and weather; but the ladies shouhi do better. 
It would have a mollifying and subduing and an elevating 
influence on their lords, who need it. They should beau- 
tify and adorn themselves, and spikenard themselves for 
their lions. I doubt if the most ferocious and savage in 
the world could long remain uncivilized, if subjected to 
the influences of a sensible and tastily dressed lady, par- 
ticularly if she would sing. As for myself, I regard music 
and female beauty as the most powerful forces in the 
world. They need only to be exerted to create revolutions. 
Man was not made to withstand such influences. 

In the midst of all this attractiveness, there is one 
great harshness. The men, excepting those who live in 
the village, are walking arsenals. They bristle with pis- . 
tols, blades and rifles, and their heels clank with prodigious 
spurs. The village looked as if it had been entered by a 
regiment of Cossacks, and was strongly suggestive, on that 
account, of force, bloodshed and robbery. Yet these arse- 
nals bore themselves with courtesy to all, and I heard no 
harsh voices and saw no demonstrative demeanor even in 
the drinking saloons, which I also visited. They evidently 
solicit no quarrels, but seem to be ever on the alert, and 
being in them, blood would flow. A gentleman among 
them would be as secure and as hospitably cared for as 
anywhere in the world ; but still, all of this is disagreeable 
to see. 

The Tamed Lion and the Wild One. 

I dined at an inn, and was waited upon by a bright 
little miss of fifteen or sixteen summers, who was a sweet 
little chatter-box. I told her I did not like the Mason 
people, with their pistols and big blades. "Oh, they are 
horrid," said she. "I am sometimes so fjightened in the 
dining-room, when they are all at the table, that I can 
hardly handle the dishes ; and if I am asked for sugar and 



TWO TH0USA:N-D miles IK TEXAS 05q- HORSEBACK. 207 

pies, I am just as apt to give them pepper and beef. Sup- 
pose one of those great pistols should full on the floor ; it 
might go off and kill me ! But the gentlemen are mighty 
well-behaved, at least when they are here. But oh, those 
terrible pistols and knives ! I wish there were none in the 
world." 

" Do they wear their pistols and knives when they at- 
tend weddings and balls ? " 

" Yes, sir, they do ; but they don't always dance with 
them on." 

" Would you dance with a gentleman wearing a pistol 
or bowie-knife ?" 

^*No, sir, I would not. I have refused to dance with 
many a gentleman because he had on his pistol, and I told 
them so." 

'' How did they take that ? " 

'^ They said I was right, and they always took them 
off." 

*' You think then, you could tame one of these fierce 
lions ? " 

* a could try!" 

*^ Which would you prefer — a wild, fierce lion whom 
you could tame, or a gentle one, already tamed ? " 

'•^Mav be the tame one would be tamed too much ! " 

" So, if two lions should besiege your castle, one wild 
and the other tame, you would unbar the gates and let the 
wild one in." 

'^ Oh I would not let either of them in. I would set 
the dogs on them and drive them off.". But this was 
spoken with a coquettish laugh which showed too plainly 
that the wild one might enter, and the tame one could go 
on and fare worse. Such are female hearts. Being gentle 
themseh^es, they rather admire the ungentle. A sub-lieu- 
tenant with a copious array of buttons, is a thousand times 
more formidable in the eyes of average young women than 



-208 TWO THOUSAND MILES I;N^ TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 

a whole army of bishops and monks. I was charged fifty- 
cents for my dinner and horse-feed. The viands were in- 
finitely good. There were venison and wild tnrkey, and a 
glorions array of wild honey. 

Mason is snrrounded with farms, some of them very 
handsome and showing high tillage. The products are 
almost exclusively wheat and corn. 

R. E. Lee. 

Not far from the town, near the road I travel, stand 
the ruins of Fort Mason, a military post before the war, 
but now abandoned. Here for a long time dwelt Robert 
E. Lee, a lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of U. S. Cav- 
alry. Albert Sidney Johnston was his colonel, but then 
commanded on the Pacific coast. The people delight to 
speak of him and tell how he visited their houses. They 
say he was the most courteous, simplest and purest of men, 
with native dignity, gentle and unobtrusive, yet singularly 
commanding. A lady said to me:* '^'He was full of affa- 
bility and small talk to the ladies, but none of us could be 
in his presence a moment without the instinctive feeling 
that one of the greatest of men was before us." A gen- 
tleman once remarked to me : " I never saw General Lee 
but once, but he made an impression upon me^I cannot 
forget. He was standing upon the gallery of the govern- 
ment building in San Antonio, watching a squad of infan- 
try that were being drilled by a lieutenant. His appear- 
ance was so impressive that I stopped to look at him and 
ask who he was. There was a remarkable repose about 
him, singularly in contrast with the group of officers about 
him. He seemed a column of antique marble, a pillar of 
state — so calm, so serene, so thoughtful, and so command- 
ing ! I stood within a few feet of him, perhaps five min- 
utes, and during the time he did not once open his lips. 
The conviction possessed me at once, and I said involun- 

* In San Antonio. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N' TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 209 

tarily to myself : 'There stands a great man!' At that 
time the idea of the States at war with each other had 
never crossed my mind. After the war had broken out 
and I had heard that Lee had been appointed to a high 
command in the southern army, I said to a major of the 
U. S. army, who knew him well, that I believed he would 
turn out the greatest figure of the war. The major said : 
' Give Lee a city and tell him to fortify and defend it, and 
it never will be captured. But give him a command in the 
open field, and he will prove a failure. He will prove too 
slow, too cautious, too methodical. The bad man of this 
war will be Albert Sidney Johnston — not Lee ! ' I said — • 
* wait and we will see ! ' And the terrible battles in the 
open field against McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, 
Meade and Grant, doubly and trebly out-numbered as he 
Avas, proved that my involuntary exclamation when I saw 
him, was prophetic. The fame of this man'^ military ge- 
nius will grow bi-ighter as the ages advance, and generals 
will study his campaigns to learn how to fight." 

And I will add that the people of the North will, as 
time advances, feel quite as much pride in the genius and 
deeds of Lee as the people of the South. The names of 
Wallace and Bruce are to-day heard as pleasantly along the 
banks of the Thames as in the Scottish Highlands. Time 
and Death are terrible things to prostrate men's prejudices. 
The gem may be obscured, but it shines nevertheless, and 
its light bursts forth after a while. 

The Wilderness ai^d the Live-oak. 

A few miles from Mason the settlements totally disap- 
pear, and I am again in the wilderness, but it is a ^vilder- 
ness of beauty — so beautiful that it seems strange that in 
this populous world it should be a wilderness. The land 
flows in green undulations, here and there rising into a 
solitary mountain, and here and there into groups of moiin^ 



210 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN" TEXAS ON" HOESEBACK. 

tains ; wide belts of timber ever in sight, and the prairies 
laid off into parks of live-oak : the soil always rich. The 
live-oaks are the grandest specimens I have seen of that 
tree, and they look as if the ancient centuries had waved 
their wings above them. Some are sixty feet high, with 
branches reaching outward nearly an equal distance from 
the trunks. Sometimes these branches incline -downward 
until they quite touch the ground, forming shady recesses 
like the tent of a circus, their dark evergreen, glistening 
foliage serving for the tent-cloth. This is perhaps the 
hardest, toughest, heaviest and most durable of woods. 
Let one be seasoned, and then attempt to cut it with an 
axe: ^^hic opus, hie labor est. ^'' I have seen the strong- 
est man strike it the heaviest bloAv that he could, and the 
only token was a sharp, metallic ring and the rebound of 
the axe. It is so compact that in the fire it burns like an- 
thracite. A decayed live-oak perhaps no man ever saw, 
and its growth, from its compactness and hardness, must 
be infinitely prolonged. I have never seen the man who 
could say: "I knew this live-oak when it was a sapling." 
I doubt not that many of these before me are a thousand 
years old. Its acorns are abundant, and make an excellent 
food for bears and hogs. 

The botanists say that this tree grows only in the 
"maritime or low districts of the Southern States." Here 
it attains its most splendid development, three hundred 
miles inland, and at an elevation at least two thousand feet 
above the sea ! So much for those who write botany at 
home ! 

A Gentleman in Distressed Circumstances. 

The country was so gloriously beautiful that I chose to 
loiter by the way. I was sitting on the bank of one of 
those Peri-haunted brooks of Mason, chewing a little dried 
beef and watching the trouts like a bevy of boys and girls 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 211 

playing in the water, wLen quite a little incident befell 
me. which certainly I could not have expected in this soli- 
tary region of beauty. I beheld descending the long slope 
which led into the valley of the brook, a solitary red dog 
trotting along the road toward me, with his head to the 
ground. Wheu within fifty yards, he suddenly halted, 
and looking around perceived me. For some moments he 
stood motionless, gazing upon me as if he felt astonished 
to see a human being in this region. Presently he dropped 
his hind-quarters deliberately to the ground, and com- 
menced gazing more intently than before. I thought he 
was the advance courier of some stock-man or train, and 
expected every moment to see a horseman or wagon ap- 
pear on the hill. But none appearing, I began to feel 
quite as much interest in the stranger as he evidently felt 
in me. I called him: "Come, Towser!" No response. 
"Come on, old fellow ! " A wag of the tail. These invi- 
tations repeated several times, he at last rose from his 
haunches and began to approach me cautiously and indeci- 
sively, and again placed himself on his hind-quarters when 
about twenty yards off. Here he sat intently gazing, as 
if resolving some extremely doubtful but interesting prob- 
lem in his mind, lifting his ears and wagging his tail when 
I addressed him, but never budging an inch. At last I 
held out a long strip of dried beef, inviting him to come 
and partake, at the same time taking an occasional bite of 
it myself, and chewing it in a manner to indicate to him 
that it was very good. A breeze just then wafted a savory 
odor into his nostrils, which was more than he could stand; 
for he immediately began to advance and did not stop until 
he was within ten feet of me, when he again planted him- 
self upon his hind-quarters and gazed, first on me, then 
on the strip of beef — then on the strip of beef, and then 
on me. 

He was a sight to behold — a sight to startle the blood 



212 TWO THOUSAND MILES IIT TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 

with amazemeni, and to chill it with horror. He was a 
walking, animated death, in all save his eager eyes, in 
which a dozen lives seemed concentrated, and gleamed with 
an unearthly fire. He reminded me so much of the horrid 
pictures which used to harrow up my young blood in child- 
hood days, in an old book in my father's library, called 
" Death's Doings," that I was stricken with awe, and felt a 
shadow of superstition creeping over me. Yet the gleam 
of those eyes, eager and fiery as they were, was not savage 
or cruel ; it seemed the light of other and more prosperous 
days gleaming through a present of the profoundest dreari- 
ness and sorrow. Every rib and every angle of his frame 
was shockingly protuberant. His belly was so pinched up 
that I thought his entrails had withered away and turned 
into dust. His skin stuck around him so closely that it 
seemed that the poor bones would break under the pres- 
sure, and fall, in rattling fragments, into the dry cavity. 
The hair had mostly fallen off, and appeared only here and 
there in meagre patches. His legs were scarcely bigger 
than pipe-stems, and looked utterly incompetent to bear 
even the fragile form above them. His tail was but a 
black, rusty, hairless prolongation of skin and bone. In 
short, he was the very shadow of desolation. How such a 
creature as this had the vitality to walk, much less to trot, 
I could not comprehend. I said to myself, this surely is a 
gentleman in reduced circumstances, waited by some mer- 
ciful zephyr into my presence, that I may do him good and 
thus honor myself. I gave him a strip of dried beef, and 
as he took it, not ravenously, but modestly, into his jaws, I 
positively saw a cx'ystal tear of gratitude course down his 
poor cheeks. He squatted on the ground, on his belly, at 
full length, and holding the jerked beef between his two 
paws, ate. Gi'ateful as was this luscious morsel to his poor 
palate, he did not forget in his enjoyment the benefactor 
to whom he owed it. Ever and anon while. chewing it-, he 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OH^ HORSEBACK. 213 

cast upon me a look of singular tenderness, which affected 
me very much — insomuch that I took out of my haversack 
the last morsel of dried beef that I had, and placed it be- 
fore him, bidding him to eat heartily, to eat it all. I can 
remember but few scenes in my life which gave me so much 
genuine satisfaction as the contemplation of the intense 
joy which fortune had enabled me to bestow upon this poor 
dog. After he had consumed the last strip of dried beef, 
I also gave him my entire stock of hard-tack, which he 
also ate with great enjoyment. Having finished the last 
cracker and. licked up the crumbs that had fallen to the 
ground, he went to the brook and drank heartily, drank 
deeply, and then came and placed his poor head upon my 
knee, as if he would say — " Whither thou goest, I will go." 
In consideration of the mighty strength which I fancied 
had once dwelt, and might still lurk, within his poor frame, 
I named him ''The Quadrilateral." Whence came this 
poor waif and what was he ? 

Recollecting that if I would not sleep in the woods or 
on the solitary prairie, I must be up and going, I mounted 
my horse and moved onward. Here my reduced friend 
again startled me. He arose also, and full of joyous ex- 
pressions, galloped and curvetted all around me. 1 was 
amazed, wondering how such merriment and such activity 
could inhabit that poor body. I advised hi;n to be cautious 
and moderate in his merriment, lest he should hurt him- 
self. He followed me along, trotting gaily by my side, 
several miles. 

Toward sunset he suddenly galloped some distance in 
advance of me, and turned oil to the right of the road and 
stopped; and resting on his haunches, he looked straight at 
me. Riding past him, he still did not move, but sat look- 
ing wistfully upon me. When I had passed him about a 
hundred yards, he turned repeatedly to look to the right 
and then upon myself, as if he would invite me to go in 



214 TWO THOUSAI^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

that direction. Seeing that I did not stop, presently he 
came galloping toward me, but instead of continuing to 
follow when he overtook me, he stopped again and looked 
to the right. As I rode on I called him, but he did not 
come. After watching me some time, he gave a low bark, 
and departed as rapidly as his poor bones could carry 
him, fortified as they were with all my dried beef and hard- 
tack, over the undulating hills to the North. Finally, as 
he rose upon one hill and I upon another, a quarter of a 
mile apart, he again stopped and gazed upon me, but when 
I rode onward, he lifted his head in the air and poured 
forth a piteous howl and immediately disappeared under 
the hill. And that was the last that I saw of my reduced 
friend. Quadrilateral. I said : '' And wilt thou thus leave 
me, Quadrilateral ? And wilt thou thus abandon thy 
benefactor, who has fattened thee on all his dried beef 
and crackers ? Alas, such is the way of the world ; and 
thy nature is but human nature after all !" 

I put it up that he belonged to some frontiersman, liv- 
ing perhaps not far off in the valley of the San Saba, whom 
he had followed on a trip; and some cruel accident or 
severe sickness befalling him, he had retired into a thicket 
to die of starvation or recover his health unaided, as best 
he could. Having in some measure recovered his health, 
he was now struggling to bear his poor bones home. In- 
deed, I thought it was somewhat ungrateful in my reduced 
friend, after the great benefit I had bestowed upon him, 
to leave me thus alone in a strange, wild country ; but I 
haven't a doubt that it cost him a cruel pang to do so. 
And did he not, in the best way he knew how, kindly in- 
vite me to his home ? As he stood motionless upon that 
last hilL I doubt not that he was debating within himself 
whether it was better to abandon his benefactor thus, or 
to return to his old friends at his old home. I dare say 
he thought of some bright-eyed boys and girls, his master's 



TWO THOUSAND MILES l'^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 215 

children, who had wept bitter tears over his loss, and he 
thought how happy those bright eyes would be to see him 
again — how they would pat him on the head with joy, and 
fill him with raw beef and venison ! And it may be that 
a thought also stole across his mind, that however kind 
the stranger had been to him in his distress, yet he might 
not like his company always, and he knew that the bright- 
eyed boys and girls would always like it. These reflec- 
tions were enough to decide his mind, and I cannot blame 
him. T hope that he may always be prosperous and happy, 
and remember me as I shall remember him. Perliaps 
without me he would not have reached his home, and felt 
the intense joy that I know he felt when he reached it ; 
but however that may be, I know that I did him good, and 
it is a sweet thought to know that. I had made up my 
mind that he might follow me as long as he chose, and be- 
lieved that he might render me service in the wild country 
through which I am to pass. 

Night. 

The shades of a moonless and cloudy night fall upon 
me, and I wander alone over the wild, beautiful country. 
I fancy that I feel like a lonely mariner on a sea of which 
he has no chart — whose frail craft may be driven at any 
moment on some fatal rock. How do I know that I may 
not ride at any moment into a squad of murderous sav- 
ages, or a company of ferocious beasts ? It is easy enough 
to ride alone through thes^ wildernesses in daylight^ when 
one has all nature before hjm to keep him company and 
divert his mind ; but at night it is a different matter. 
Then the mind recoils back upon you and hangs doggedly 
around, refusing to scale the black walls which encompass 
you. Then it is that 

" Darkness visible 
Serves only to discover sights of woe, 
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades." 



216 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

Every sound that yon hear sends your fingers to your 
pistol or rifle ; every Indian atrocity you ever heard of flits 
through your mind, and you think of wild beasts with 
great, gaping mouths. And suppose I should lose the 
trail and strike out, Heaven knows whither, on the bound- 
less plains, with nothing in my haversack, and not a match 
to light a fire. On I speed, my horse picking up his hoofs 
faster and faster, unable to see ten paces before me, the 
laughing owl mocking me from almost every tree, and the 
big wolf howling sometimes so close that I feel the vibra- 
tions in the atmosphere caused by his voice. Sometimes 
a night-bird of some diminutive species flits so closely to 
my ear that it sounds like tlie whiz of a poisoned arrow 
aimed at my heart. 

Three hours I speed along till I enter what appears an 
illimitable range of mountains. Tlie stones clank under 
my horse's feet, and I can see the big black outlines loom- 
ing up against the leaden sky. The clouds are growing 
darker, and a thick mist puffs up into my face from the 
gorges and chasms. Now, say I to myself, I am in for an 
all night ride, for if I would stop, where can I find a rest- 
ing place on these sharp rocks ? 

^ ^ ^ •!• T» H* 

The Queen and the Lily. 

A half dozen big dogs barked and growled furiously 
around us, but my horse was not afraid of them in the 
least — neither was I. Had my reduced friend Quadrilate- 
ral been here, how quickly they would have crushed his 
poor bones into atoms ! I called aloud, and presently a 
light appeared through the openings of a log-house. The 
next moment a strong man, bearing a lantern, stood before 
me. I said : " I am a wayfarer who would ask for rest 
to-night for myself and horse." 

** You are welcome, sir," said the man with the lan- 
tern, '' if you can put up with such as we can give you." 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 217 

He opened the gate and bade me ride in. He led. to a 
barn, where my horse was placed in comfortable quarters. 
Then I was conducted into the house, and a bright fire soon 
glowed on the hearth. I looked at my watch, and it was 
a quarter past eleven o'clock. He asked me from what 
point I had travelled. I told him and he said, '^It is a 
long day's ride. You must be hungry as well as tired." 

In truth I was hungry, but I said: '* Never mind 
about that, sir. I am content to-night with lodging, I can 
well wait till morning for my supper." 

^^Oh, no," said he; *' one who has been out all day 
should have some supper. I know what it is myself." 

This was so promptly spoken, and there was withal so 
much good man and sincerity about it, that I made no 
further objection. The frontiersman stepped to a room 
adjoining the one in which I sat, and standing in the door, 
said : '' Girls, rise and get this gentleman some supper." 
He then went into another room and seemed to busy him- 
self in making a fire. While he was out, I observed the 
room. The house was built of logs, but it was commo- 
dious and scrupulously neat. . Along the walls were a 
number of bucks' antlers, so arranged that they served as 
shelves for several rifles and shot-guns, and from some of 
them hung flask's and pouches of powder and ball. The 
furniture was of the modest sort ; one or two plain tables 
and chairs with raw-hide bottoms. Rather a costly clock 
clicked from the mantel-piece, and several books were 
ranged upon it, mostly devoted to subjects connected with 
rural life. There was some evidence of female taste and 
hands in the numerous pictures along the walls, some of 
which had been cut from pictorial weeklies. Notwith- 
standing this unpretentious residence and its meagiT furni- 
ture, there was something that seemed to say that the air 
of a higher civilization rested about it. 

My host soon returned. He was certainly not a showy - 
10 



218 TWO THOUSAI^D MILES lif TEXAS Ois HOKSEBACK. 

man. His vizage was bronzed, his hands rough and pow- 
erful, and his whole appearance showed that his life was 
passed mostly out of doors, in strong physical exercise. 
Yet his bearing was that of a gentleman, and it was easy 
to perceive that he was a man of sense and some scholar- 
ship. He spoke pure English, and put the words pat in 
their place, and there was sometimes even a little sus- 
picion of the stronger poets about them. I said to myself: 
** This is the style of man to subdue the wilderness and 
make it blossom : vigor of body with vigor and some grace 
of mind." And yet, I had as yet seen none of the blos- 
som, but only perceived a faint suspicion of it. I said 
again : " This is either a column of marble transported 
out of place, or it is a phenomenon amid rocks and bram- 
bles." I asked him if he was engaged in agriculture ? 
^' Not much," said he ; '' only enough to furnish ourselves, 
and a little for those who may be passing. Our country 
is noble for agriculture, but we are too remote to make it 
our business. What we raise must be able to transport it- 
self on its own legs. I make my living by the copulation 
of my bulls and cows." 

That other quotation from the same play immediately 
flashed upon my mind : '^ Good sooth, she is the queen of 
curds and cream ! " — and it was prophetic. 

Two Surprises. 

Two girls now entered the room and passed into an 
adjoining one, both casting a look upon me as they passed. 
That was the kitchen, for my nostrils were presently sa- 
luted with the pleasing odor of cooking rations. Soon one 
returned and spread a white cloth on a table at my side, 
other articles of table-ware quickly following. This girl 
was about fifteen or sixteen, and a blonde. So fair was 
she that I could see the blue veins, like little *^ rivers run- 
ning through a field of snow." A wealth of fair locks fell 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 219 

over her shoulders unrestrained, save by a single little rib- 
bon. Her eyes were blue, like the bJue-bird's egss I used 
to rifle from the nests when a boy. Sylph-like, not fragile, 
she looked as if she had done nothing all her life but laugh 
in shaded gardens or dance in marble halls. To say thlit 
she was pretty would simply be to say that the queen rose 
is so. Her beauty was of that style which seems to be ever 
mviting pursuit, yet ever fleeing when the pursuit begins. 
Love was in her soft eyes and in all her motions. How 
could this apparition be but a surprise in this deep wil- 
derness ? I said to myself : ^^ This is the Lily : this is 
the nymph of the lilies ! " I thought it strange that this 
fair creature should be the daughter of this gnarled sire. 
And yet have I not written him down as a column of mar- 
ble transported out of place ? The chips that fall from a 
column of marble must needs be marble. 

She returned to the kitchen and brought out plate after 
plate of smoking viands. Then came her sister, bearing 
a pot of coffee. This sister was the opposite of the Lily: 
she was all that is beautiful contrasted sharply with all that 
is beautiful. She was not a brunette : just a shade less 
fair than her blonde sister, but her hair was of the glossy 
blackness of the raven's wings, falling in a profusion of 
ringlets. Her eyes sparkled with a brilliancy • of black- 
ness. Her features were of the Grecian cast, and as reg- 
ular as if they had been chiselled by an artist. She was 
much taller than her sister ; so much so as to be imposing, 
and her movements were all grace. How could this but 
be a surprise to me ? Two sisters of the same father and 
mother, and yet so markedly unlike, except in the beauty 
that marked them both : the beauty of each being the 
best of its class ! This shows the various fountains °from 
which our multitudinous American race descended : the 
Lily from the pure font of Saxon, and her sister from the 
pure font of Norman, and each the purest and best of her 



220 TWO THOUSAND MILES II^" TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 

line. As she moved before me so majestically, I said : 
*'This is the Queen I" I took her age to be about 
nineteen. 

I do not know the names of the various parts of the 
female dress, or the materials of which they are composed, 
and I am therefore lost when I come to one. Suffice it to 
say that each wore a neat and tasty pattern suited to the 
houseliold, and a bright yellow apron in front. Each wore 
a single plain ring, and there were no diamonds pendent 
from their ears. Perhaps their diamonds are in their 
hearts and lips. 

For a moment I found myself debating within myself — 
which of these two sisters would I take, if I could take 
either ? — and I concluded that I would take both, or either 
if the other were away. The frontiersman brought my mind 
back by asking me to be seated at the table, and the Queen 
sat in front of me to wait on the stranger. The Lily sat 
in a corner, as if musing to herself and saying : ^^He who 
would take me must come for me, and I will hide when he 
comes." 

I made apology to the Queen for disturbing her at so 
late an hour. *^0h, sir, don't mind that. We are always 
pleased to assist travellers, and we see them so rarely. 
Sometimes for a month we do not see any one but our few 
neighbors." Paterfamilias amused himself by reading a 
newspaper, and the Queen and I chatted gaily as I partook 
of the bountiful repast. She was as easy and ready as any 
lady I ever met in the parlors of the great cities, and more 
attractive ; for, besides her remarkable and commanding 
beauty, she was full of naivete, and originality ; the fresh- 
ness of nature, tlie bouquet and aroma of the virgin prai- 
ries and woodland. Like a bird, she " warbled her native 
wood-notes wild." And this was in the deep wilderness 
beyond the confines. Was not Eve, when she dropped from 
the hands of God in that wilderness of Eden, queenly and 



TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 221 

of winning grace ? Were her thoughts not all original and 
beautiful ? But how if she evolved from a polyp, and 
found herself lying, rough and hairy, in a slimy ooze ? 

After I had supped, the frontiersman asked me to join 
him in a pipe, and the Queen and Lily disappeared with 
the cloth an5 dishes, and I saw them no more that night. 
When we had burned out one pipe each, the father said : 
" I suppose you must be tired. Let me show you your room." 

I had seen the blossom — yea, two of them, and had felt 
the fragrance. 

Peculiar. — Eaves-dropping. 

He took a light and led me to the door of the next 
room. It was the same from which the Queen and Lily 
had emerged, to get supper for the stranger. I entered, 
and there was a bed, but not a single article of covering 
was on it ! Said the father : We are short of covering, 
and as the night is cold, you had better let me get your 
blankets for you.'' He brought them in from the room 
where I had placed them when I came in, and bade me 
good-night. 

I took in the position at once. This was the sleeping 
apartment of the Queen and the Lily, which they had 
abandoned to make room for the stranger. They had 
given me their bed, but had taken away the covering to 
spread a nice little pallet for themselves on the floor by the 
fire, in the room where I supped ! I knew this to be so, 
because I heard them gaily chatting while they were mak- 
ing the pallet by the fire-place. I heard every word, be- 
cause the partition was thin, and there were chinks through 
which I might have seen, had I sought. Paterfamilias 
went out of the house and returned with a big armful of 
wood. He said : " Girls, you must keep a good fire all 
night. It is freezing, and I do not want my babies to 
catch cold." 



222 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HOESEBACK. 

"Never mind about the cold, papa; we will get along 
all right. We will snug up by the lire like two little kit- 
tens." I knew by her voice that it was the Lily that said 
that. 

•' Say, papa, don't you want a kiss to-night ?" That was 
the Queen. 

" Oh, I reckon I can do without kisses till morning," 
said the frontiersman. " Besides, if you give me a kiss, 1 
reckon voull both be comino^ after me for ten dollars in the 
morning ; and times, you know, are hard." 

The Queen and Lily laughed, but they both ran to 
him, and I heard them deliver upon the powerful frontiers- 
man's lips two hearty kisses. " Now/' said they, ''you 
may tell us good-night I " 

I felt heartily ashamed of myself. I felt that they 
should have the bed, and I the pallet before the lire. I 
was on the point of rushing out, but the father had already 
retired, and that restrained me. Did ever man oust two 
pretty ladies from their bed before, compelling them to 
sleep on the floor like kittens, while he occupied their bed ? 
I have never thought of this since without blushing with 
indignation at myself ; and yet how could I help it ? 

Where the Peris Dwell. 

While undressing, I observed the furniture of the 
room. Here again was simplicity the simplest and so 
outre ! A small table sat in the centre, and a few chairs 
around it ; a number of bucks' horns adorned the walls, 
and from these depended numerous dresses of the Peris, 
which they had neglected to take away in their flight, or 
else had left intentionally — thinking perhaps that if I 
should grow cold in the night, the dresses might be of ser- 
vice to keep me warm. The bedstead was of planks nailed 
together, and at the head of it was a double-barrel shot- 
gun, capped and half-cocked. Invade those premises who 



TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 223 

dare ! But the bed and pillows were luxurious, stuffed 
full, as I suppose, with down from the breast of the swan. 
Such is the place where Peris dwell ! 

There were many books on the table : among them 
Ivanhoe, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, several of 
Bulwer's and Cooper's novels, Scott's peems, Milton, Tup- 
per and others. Will not the reading of these works, 
thought I, make these young creatures unhappy in this 
wilderness ? Will it not make them pine for the gay 
scenes with which such works must fill their imagina- 
tions ? 

I soon slept profoundly on the bed of the Queen and 
the Lily. I only hope that they on their pallet by the fire 
slept as well. 

Morning. 

Paterfamilias awaked me by tapping on the door and 
saying breakfast would soon be ready. On lighting the 
lamp, I saw that it was an hour to sunrise. This struck 
me as peculiar, as Western people are not generally given 
to earlv rising. In a few minutes I sat at breakfast with 
the family. The Queen and Lily looked as fresh as water- 
nymphs that have just risen from the laughing brooks. 
They had evidently suffered not much from sleeping on 
the pallet by the fire. Materfamilias was present, — a 
quiet lady of forty years, more like the Queen than the 
Lily. The same dark locks, the same brilliant eye, thoagh 
softened by time, and much the same graceful demeanor. 
But the Queen's splendid brow showed where the superi- 
ority lay. Her mother had given her what was best in 
herself, and nature in improving the gifts had bestowed 
others. 

After breakfast the frontiersman left the house, and 
as I had no inclination to move at so early an hour, I 
indulged the opportunity to chat with the Queen and Lily. 



224 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 

I spoke of the Centennial, and the Queen spoke as vividly 
about it as any Philadelphia lady in sight of the great Art 
Hall. She said she had a great desire to attend it, and 
was endeavoring to persuade her father, but as yet he had 
not consented. I said I expected to visit the Centennial, 
and nothing would please me so much as to have a young 
lady accompany me. I then somewhat impudently asked 
if she would not be that one ? 

" Oh," said she, "if I should go with you, you might 
run away and leave me alone in Philadelphia, and what 
would become of me, a frontier girl, turned adrift in that 
great city ? " This with a laugh, indicating that she thought 
she might still be able to paddle her own canoe, even under 
circumstances so strange. She added that it would be fool- 
ish to suppose that a city gentleman would be pleased with 
a wild frontier girl like herself. '' I guess in company you 
would try to keep me veiled, and my tongue tied." 

Miranda. 

I told her — tempting her — that the most beautiful and 
interesting tome of all the creations of Shakespeare's fancy, 
was the young Miranda, raised by her father on a solitary 
isle, where she saw no other human being until accident 
threw in her way : 

" Ca—Ca— Caliban, 
Get a new master, g;el a new man ! " 

She was, I said, as lovely as Eve when Adam first saw 
her in the garden of Eden ; and neither Miranda nor Eve 
were less lovely from not having been trained in what they 
call fashionable society ; in other words, from having been 
girls of the frontier, as they certainly were. On the con- 
trary, their loveliness was the more perfect, coming fresh 
from the hands of God and nature. After a while a Prince 
was wrecked on this solitary isle, and seeing Miranda, he 
instantly fell deeply in love with her. I would have done 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 225 

the same, if I had been the Prince. I see no difference 
between San Saba and Miranda's isle, and perhaps there is 
not much difference between the Prince and me. He took 
her to his gay capital, and he did not abandon her. He 
made her his Princess, and she became renowned. What 
pity if he had left her on her isle in the sea ! " 

" That is a very pretty story," said the Queen ; *^ but if 
I had been Miranda, I would much rather have gone away 
with the man whose genius invented it, than with the Prince 
himself." 

Airy Beings. 

And she neatly turned the point by immediately 
adding : 

" What a wonderful man Shakespeare was ! Do you not 
think that he knew everything ? And yet they say he was 
an ignorant man, too, — at least as to scholarship." 

I said Shakespeare's mind was omnivorous ; he devoured 
every book he could lay his hands on, but those were few. 
Besides, he found '' books in the running brooks, sermons 
in stones." The truth is, he probably had more learning 
than any man of his age. 

" But that would not account," said she, ^^for all his 
wonderful wisdom. Secrets of nature were familiar to his 
mind when they were undreamed* of by others. The stores 
of knowledge were opened to him through mysterious ways. 
He knew more than Milton with all his learning, who came 
long after him. I sometimes think that those airy beings 
whom the poets often speak of — the Muses, the Nymphs 
and the Naiads — were not all imaginary, but true, immor- 
tal, celestial beings, with whom they held secret conversa- 
tion, receiving light and knowledge from their lips. Else, 
how could they have created such beautiful things, and 
known all knowledge before others ? " 

I did not speak ; I listened, and she continued : 
10* 



226 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

" Was not Undine a real existence who told of herself 
to the poet, who merely repeated the story that the spirit 
told him ? I believe these celestial spirits talked with 
Milton night and day, and that throngh them Paradise 
Lost is a divine inspiration like the Bible. May it not be 
an unguarded reference to these strange visitors when he 
said : 

' Mj'riads of spirits unseen walk the earth. 
Both while we sleep and while we wake ? ♦ 

"And when Shakespeare speaks of the 'airy tongues 
that syllable men's names,' may he not have had in his 
mind the spiritual guardians of his genius, who syllabled 
his own name ? And then there is Homer, who lived in 
the profound ages of darkness when books were unknown; 
yet with nothing to guide him, as they say, but his own 
genius, he produced a work that has been a model to all 
after-times, unsurpassed and unequalled, except by Milton, 
who is greatest where he shows that he studied and loved 
Homer. Do you not think that Homer wandered in the 
groves of Parnassus conversing with those celestial beings 
who love the gifted great ? or that they descended from 
Olympus and whispered into his ear his grand creations 
while he slept ? " 

I spake not. The Queen, warming, continned : '* And 
so Milton, when he speaks of his blindness, says : 

' Yet not the more 
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt 
Clear spring, or shadj' grove or sunny hill : 
Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move 
Harmonious numbers ; as the wakeful bird 
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid, 
Tunes her nocturnal note.' 

" Is not this a confession of his strange, celestial vis- 
itors ? And thus, he who dwelt in Fairy Land and wrote 
the Faery Queen : 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. 22? 

* How oft do they their silver howers leave, 
To come to succor us that siiccor want I 
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, 
And their bright squadrons round about us flaunt 1 ' 

Is not this a confession of these celestial visitors ? " 
" It may be," said I, " for the gift of fancy is a fearful 
gift. So at least said one of the greatest of those thus 
gifted ; and perhaps he had in his mind, as you say, the 
celestial visitors who fed the flame of his genius." 

" I do not doubt that it is so," said the Queen. And 
while she spake, her brilliant eyes sparkled, and it seemed 
that she might be one of those celestial visitors herself. 
Thus Byron : 

*' Such inhabit many a spot — 
Though with them to converse can rarely be our lot." 

It was my first time. Is she not a true naiad — a wood- 
nymph ? 

After this I did not think it worth while to ask the 
Queen whether the rocks about her were Silurian, Devo- 
nian or Carboniferous. She had sounded the depth 
of the Pierian spring ; and why should a nymph and 
naiad not ? 

The Wilderi^ess ajs^d Society, 

I said tautalizingly that I could not see how people 
could be content to live so remote from the busy world 
and society — particularly the educated and refined. This 
brought out materfamilias, who previously had had very 
little to say. 

^' As for myself, I care for no other society than my 
home, my husband and children. This is world and 
society enough for me, of which I can never become tired. 
I feel now that the settlements are growing too near, and I 
would like to go further out." 



228 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

The Queen and the Lily said they were happy in their 
home, and were by no means ambitious to leave it. " As 
for intelligence, if we have any," said the Queen, ^' it is the 
possession of it that makes these apparent solitudes the 
more agreeable. If I did not have some intelligence, I 
would go to the cities, where frivolity might make igno- 
rance endurable." 

I now questioned not that I had fallen into a home of 
nymphs and naiads, and that the frontiersman was a Gnome 
or one of the Genii. 

Ships that meet at Sea. 

It was eight o'clock before I thought of my onward 
journey. As I walked out to saddle my horse, I hoped 
that he had fallen ill during the night, that I might have 
excuse for delay. But he nnfortunately was well and 
hearty. Had he been sick who can say what history might 
not have been made ? It was a sly thought, emanating 
perhaps from one's love of self — but I thought there might 
be some regret in that liome at my departure. I know 
there was in my own breast. Two ships often meet at sea, 
and after exchanging courtesies an hour or so, they spread 
their sails and separate. They watch one another sinking 
beneath the horizon with regret. 

My horse being equipped, 1 returned to the house. I 
took the Queen and Lily by the hands and bade them adien, 
and I did not see a tear in their eyes ! But I consoled my- 
self for this apparent indifference with the reflection that 
nymphs and naiads do not weep, and '' great griefs are 
dumb." Paterfamilias came to bid me adieu, and said, 
*^I will always be pleased to see you when you pass." I 
felt my heart grow sick as I rose on my horse and left. 

Suppose one of these noble girls should marry a rusty- 
legged cow-driver, who never had a thought higher than 
his quirt, or a chew of tobacco ? What a death in life 



TWO THOUSAIfD MILES IJ?- TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 229 

would be hers ! And yet such women might be able, pos- 
sibly, to manufacture ^^ a thing of beauty" even out of a 
cow- driver. 

A Conversation" on" the Road. 

After leaving the home of the Queen and Lily about a 
mile, a young horseman rode beside me. He was mounted 
on a prancing pony, and dressed in a gay buckskin suit, 
very prettily trimmed. A tine looking, vigorous young 
fellow was he ; a rifle on the pommel of his saddle and a 
six-shooter buckled to his waist. After some general con- 
versation I asked him if he knew the gentleman at whose 
house I had passed the night, giving his name ? 

" Certainly I do," said he ; *' I have known him always, 
and a first class man is he." 

" He is very poor," said I quietly, "is he not ?" 

" Poor ? good God ! " said the young horseman. " That 
man's got more money than both your horse and mine to- 
gether can pack. Suppose you had two or three thou- 
sand beeves to sell every year, at fifteen to twenty dollars 
a head, wouldn't you have pretty much of money ?" 

" I should think I would." 

*^ Well, sir," said he, "that is that man's case exactly. 
I tell you he has oceans of it." 

"And he is rich also in two pretty daughters, is he 
not ? " 

The young horseman turned, and looking steadfastly 
upon me a moment, said : 

" You bet ! " 

He then left, in another direction, saying : " Take care 
of yourself, and look out for the red-skins." And I con- 
tinued my solitary ride into the Far West. 



V. 



EiVER Sa:n' Saba. — Irrigatiois'. 

rjMHE San Saba carries a bulkier volume than the Llano, 
_L but' it has not its ethereal limpidity. Its blue waters 
are stained with an impalpable white sediment, as if they 
had a small ingredient of milk ; which caused me to sus- 
pect that they bear white sulphur or gypsum in solution, 
though this is not observable to the taste. Its valley is a 
noble one, smooth as a floor, of the blackest, richest soil, 
often spreading out many miles in width. It is famous 
for its wheat — thirty to forty-five bushels to the acre, — and 
its splendid white-skin onions, which may be eaten almost 
like apples ; its wealth of grapes, and its abundant pecans, 
which here seem to have found their choicest abode. A 
dam across the river here and there, with lateral and longi- 
tudinal ditches, would irrigate all the valley. For forty- 
miles above its mouth it is tolerably settled ; thence on- 
ward, very sparsely, and often for great distances, not at 
all. With this valley supplied with dams and ditches and 
railroads, it would be one of the most charming and desir- 
able spots of earth, and soon one of the richest. The 
populations of these Western valleys are yet too sparse to 
enable them to effect a general system of irrigation, and 
State aid would well come in. The small outlay would be 
rapidly repaid in the gi*eat increase of wealth and the num- 
ber of her tax-paying citizens. The San Saba now has a 
few thousand acres irrigated, and the product of such fields 
is immense. It is almost beyond human credulity to be- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 231 

lieve what the crops will yield on this noble soil, when well 
tilled and never allowed to suffer from needed moisture. I 
saw one of these irrigation ditches, twelve feet in width and 
eight in depth, which the enterprising farmers were ex- 
cavating by their own joint labor, at such times as they 
could spare from other duties. They intend to make it 
eight miles in length, so that it will irrigate some eight or 
ten thousand acres. This is secured by simply tapping 
the river at a point where it is above the land to be irri- 
gated, and diverting a small portion of its water out of the 
channel. When it is desired to inundate the land, the 
ditch is dammed and the water spreads over the surface, 
increasing the fertility by depositing the gypseous or sul- 
phurous sediment of the river. 

Mekardville. — The Ultima Thuliaks. 

Rode into Menardville and delaved two hours. This is 
the jumping-off place^ — the watch-tower on the borders of 
civilization. Passing out of the limits of the little burg 
and facing West, a dangerous and almost trackless wil- 
derness rolls away before you some hundreds of miles. To 
this point has the great> aggressive American tide ad- 
vanced, and not an inch further, and its representatives 
here are merely the skirmishers that foretell the coming of 
the main body. Its population is about two hundred, and 
its appearance is as peculiar as its position. No grand 
boulevards, paved with marble and asphaltum, here. It is 
built in a thicket of brush, and so securely hidden that the 
traA'eller does not see it until he has entered it. No mar- 
ble palaces and long rows of brick here. Indeed, a traveller 
Tuight ride through it at night and never suspect the pres- 
ence of a city, except from the occasional gleaming of a 
light through the brush and the barking of dogs. I doubt 
not that panthers, wolves and bears prowl nightly through 
it, and slake their thirst at the brook on whose banks 



232 TWO THOUSAND MILES IJ^" TEXAS 0^ HORSEBACK. 

laughing children romped but an hour before. It is said 
that these beasts prowled nightly through the first cities 
built by man, and wherein dilfers this from a city built by 
primitive man ? 

The houses are peculiar. They are boxes built of 
rough and warped oaken boards, innocent of paint or 
whitewash. Often the boards have shrunken so much in 
drying that wide gaps are left between them, through which 
the winds of heaven have full play. In case of a slanting 
rain, the occupants have no other recourse but to huddle 
together on the side whence the rain conies, and wait till 
the elements have spent their fury. The flood falling to 
the floor would speedily be devoured by the cracks. In 
case of a fierce Texas Norther, the position must be nearly 
intolerable ; for though that portion of the body next to 
the fire might be kept comfortably warm, the opposite 
exposure must suffer greatly from the eager, nipping wind. 
Sudden and tremendous outbursts of rain are common in 
this country. Imagine one of these falling in the dead 
of night during the paroxysm of a norther, when the fire 
has gone out and no split wood in the house, driving the 
people from their beds and huddling them, half naked 
and shivering, in the corner for hours at a time ! It is 
said that our poor primitive ancestors sometimes suffered 
greatly from the elements, and I can now have no doubt 
of it. Many a time were men, women and babies expelled 
by the storms from their comfortable beds of skins, to take 
refuge in the opposite corners. It is quite enough to make 
one's heart sick to think of the inconveniences which our 
poor ancestors were put to, from not being so smart as 
their children are. 

There are two or three little stores here, mere shells, 
which the most unhandy cracksman could exploit in three 
minutes ; and the fact that these stores are never exploited, 
is ample proof of the honesty of these primitive people. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 15^- TEXAS OlS" HORSEBACK. 233 

and of our ancestors whom they resemble. A dishonest 
rogue is a thing unknown in this region, unless perchance 
there may be some skulking villain hiding from pursuit of 
law ; and here it behooves him to keei3 himself exceedingly 
well behaved ; otherwise these primitive people would 
speedily mete out to him the primitive justice of our ances- 
tors, without the slow help of judge and jury. 

The men who dwell in this city are also peculiar: a 
stalwart, sinewy race, bronzed, and bearded like a dozen 
pards, all armed to the teeth ; but they wear their arms 
just as other people w^ear coats and vests — mainly because 
it is fasliionable and a matter of course. A more amiably 
inclined people I never saw ; and they seem to vie in hos- 
pitality to the stranger, not obtrusively, but with a native, 
inborn, quiet hospitality, which gives him at once to un- 
derstand that they mean what they say. They are nearly 
all young or middle-aged men. To subdue tlie wilderness 
and stand guard over the watchtowers of civilization does 
not belong to the old, to whom "the grasshopper is a 
burden ;" and yet I see a few strong old men here whose 
heads are as white as if a hundred winters had sprinkled 
their snows uj)on them — old men youthful in everything 
except years. They are a sharp, quick and intelligent 
people, and there are some w^ho are evidently of superior 
education. These were doubtless stray young gentlemen, 
whom a restless spirit of adventure decoyed from their 
homes in tlie old States, finally stranding them on the 
shore of this Ultima Thule. They -are appreciated here; 
for as I have often observed, these rough frontiersmen do 
dearly love to see educated and sensible young men set- 
tling among them. They perhaps regard them as the flt- 
tle lump of leaven that is to leaven the whole loaf, and 
rarely fail to help and promote them when the opportunity 
offers. Of such is the gentleman who keeps the records 
of the Court of Menard, with whom I chatted a good 



234 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

deal. I dare say when a boy lie rubbed his back against 
the walls of some university ; and here he is, on this remote 
confine, shedding a light around him, esteemed by all, and 
destined to grow upward as the country grows. I found 
him in the court-house, a rough box twelve by fifteen, 
where he sits lord and master. 

Let no pin-feather youth, however, think that he may 
come among these frontiersmen and be made a lion of at 
once. A pretentious, foppish young fellow would be 
grievously discounted by them, in spite of all his book- 
learning and elegance of manner. He must have good 
store of common sense, and understand how to adapt him- 
self to the situation. He must eschew all airs of assumed 
superiority, for these frontiersmen are nearly all men of 
as much sharpness of mother-wit as boldness of heart. 
Most of them have seen a good deal of the world, and 
they speedily detect the spurious. He must show a heart 
for honest, manly work, be companionable, bear himself 
toward all respectfully and courteously, and I will warrant 
that he will soon find that he has a noble army of friends 
around him, who will always be glad to advance him, and 
will feel proud of him as one of themselves. The mothers 
and daughters will esteem him as much as the fathers and 
brothers, and perhaps take a livelier interest in him ; for 
the female heart, always and everywhere, aspires to a 
higher condition, and it is by no means difficult for a sen- 
sible young man in a position like this to warm their fancy 
with the idea that he is to be one of the props of the better 
order of things. When he comes to the frontier let him 
bear my suggestions in mind, and I do not doubt that, as 
he prospers and grows happy, he will always bear me in 
grateful remembrance.* 

* The writer of this note has often thought of his first appearance among a 
frontier people, with considerable amusement to himself. When a boj'. almost 
beardless, just from the schools, he appeared on horseback in San Saba, wearing 
a nice silk hat, carrying a silver-headed cane, and dressed as young gentlemen 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 235 

These men are nearly all engaged in stock-raising, and 
so were our primitive ancestors. They have built this lit- 
tle city for mutual protection and society. They are all 
Americans, as far as I noted. 

The Female Ultima Thuliaks. 

I regret that I had no opportunity to exchange courte- 
sies with a single one of them. I saw them, but as the 
humming-bird or butterjQy sees the laden flowers in a glass 
house whose doors are closed. I saw a number on the 
banks of the pretty Menard brook, engaged in washing 
their garments in tubs, while a troop of little ones romped 
on the grass at their feet. I was near enough to observe 
their healthful and powerful development ; the solidity of 
the plastic moulding that covered their frame ; for they 
were kirtled to the knees, and their arms were bare to the 
shoulder, and their shoulders were bare. As I contem- 
plated them I could not help but think that no dand^dsh 
boys would be fit mates for these primitive ladies, but that 
they behoove to be men who would be the masters of their 

generally dress in the best communities of the older States. The old frontiers- 
men looked upon me with almost intolerable scorn, and there was some serious 
talk of hanging me as a suspected horse-thief, for no other reason in the world 
than that I was a well-dressed, well-educated, and decidedly well-behaved, 
though rather reserved young fellow ! One old fellow, rough and hairy, and, to 
ID}' eye, quite a monster in appearance, with hardlj' enough clothes on to hide 
his exceedinglj"^ ugly nakedness, actually talked of this within mj' hearing. The 
look of scorn that he cast upon me was sublime. I was quick to perceive the 
drift of things ; and as Indians were then stealing and scalping at a great rate, I 
threw off my nice clothes and silver-headed cane, put on a rough suit, and went 
Indian hunting with the frontiersmen some six months, sleeping with them in 
their houses, in the woods, and on the prairies. They soon seemed to almost 
love me, and I never have been in a country where I had such warm friends ; 
though they never ceased to joke me about my "• three-story silk hat "' and sil- 
ver-headed cane. I even stopped several nights under the hospitable roof of the 
rough old fellow who talked in my presence of hanging me, and felt a malicious 
sort of pleasure in kissing his plump daughters every chance I could steal. Had 
I not thrown aside my silk hat and fine cane, it is not at all impossible I might 
have been hung. Since that time San Saba has advanced mightil}\ and I dare 
say there are many very nicely dressed young fellows among them ; but her peo 
pie's hearts are no warmer now than they were then. 



236 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON" HOESEBACK. 

hearts. What cares a woman for a man upon whom she 
must look downward ? That lady's heart is always sick, 
and it may be, sometimes untrue, who feels her lord to be 
her inferior ; for it is a reversal of the order of nature, 
which teaches her to look upward instead of downward. 
To her, life is a desolation unless she has ambitions of her 
own to cultivate, or children in whom she may forget her 
husband. If my brows may not be crowned by female 
hands with laurel, I will endeavor to secure at least indif- 
ference by keeping away from them. I would not believe 
in the tale of Venus and Adonis if the popular idea of 
Adonis were the correct one. It is supposed by the un- 
thoughtful that this unaccountable youth was only re- 
markable for his feminine beauty ; but he was a wild-boar 
hunter and a prodigious horseman. He was a noble speci- 
men of the physical development of manhood, accompanied 
by daring and heroic courage. Had he been a little effemi- 
nate beauty, bepowdered and bescented, as the popular 
idea usually represents him, I dare say the imposing Queen 
of Beauty would have scorned him, instead of surrendering 
without summons to his discretion. 

And is such female development, as I see it in this 
group before me — vigorous, muscular, conveying the im- 
pression of force — averse to the sentiment of love ? or does 
the love of men prefer the delicate, the fragile, the weak ? 
I think not so. Venus was but a female Antinous, a very 
giantess of beauty. She overthrew the hearts of men and 
gods alike : Mars, Vulcan, and Hercules, were willing 
slaves at her feet : Helen, who caused the most renowned 
war in history, was a big, muscular woman ; such were 
Cleopatra, Zenobia, and in fact all of them who have most 
stirred up mankind with the love of them. We may make 
pets of and amuse ourselves with the little beauties, but it 
is the big ones that tyrannize our hearts and drive us to 
war and desperation : not the fat, or the squabby, by any 



TWO THOUSAISTD MILES 1:N" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 23? 

means. Was there ever a little woman who produced a 
bigger commotion than a tempest in a tea-pot ? 

As I rode past the group, one of the ladies, though 
laughing, seemed a little disturbed, as if she would shrink 
from my observation. Her wish to avoid observation at- 
tracted it the more. I thought I beheld a history in her. 
When I was a boy, I was much in the habit of passing a 
magnificent grove, in which was a large seminary of learn- 
ing for girls. It was a place considered aristocratic, and 
fathers and mothers who would be aristocrats, generally 
sent their daughters thither, though it pinched many of 
them severely to do so. I dare say the lady at the wash-tub 
who shrank from my observation, was schooled at that place, 
as a '•' high-born lad ye." Truly, life is filled with pictures : 
then a romping school-girl, living in palaces in the air, 
breathing atar of roses ; now a stately mother at the wash- 
tub, with a squadron of laughing babies tumbling at her 
feet. Thus life goes on, and we fulfill the purposes for 
which we were created. But why should she shrink from 
my observation ? Did she think that I would esteem her 
less, seeing her performing her duty at the wash-tub ? I 
esteemed her the more, and it is possible a thought of envy 
of her husband may have passed over me. That young 
woman may be the mother of great men, and I dare say 
she will. If we will trace the lives of all great men, we 
shall find none whose mothers ever hesitated to stand at 
the wash-tub, if it befell them in their line of duty to do 
so. None but strong-minded women can be the mothers 
of strong-minded men. Kitten women are the mothers of 
kitten men. 



V. 



Coglan's Cave akd What Befell. 

LEAVIlNiG the ladies at the wash-tub, and observing 
my arms to see if all was right, I rode beyond the 
confines into the great wilderness, passing six miles through 
a fertile but brushy region, to Coglan's Cave, where a 
beautiful stream*issues out of a large rock ; the aperture 
leading into the recess six feet high and wide enough for 
two men to pass in abreast. It being noon, I stopped. I 
did not attempt to enter the dark cave, but it is probably 
a large one. 

While wandering about this pretty place, I stepped sud- 
denly within a few feet of a beautiful animal. I said : 
"this is a porcupine, with all his quills set !" A portion 
of his body, including his head, was jet, glossy black, while 
the rest of it was as white as snowy satin, except the kirge 
bushy tail, which he carried erect over his body, spread out 
like a fan : that was composed of a succession of black and 
white rings. He seemed very little alarmed at my pres- 
ence, but moved off slowly in an exceedingly graceful man- 
ner, as if conscious of his superb beauty and wishing to 
show it to the stranger. No belle in a ball-room ever 
moved with more graceful motion, or was more beautifully 
decked out. I pursued admirins:. As I gained upon this 
beautiful and graceful creature, it stopped and turned 
broadside toward me, looking upon me with a singular 
look of not being much afraid, and not particularly de- 
siring my company. I then saw that there was a bright 
white band across its forehead, just above the eyes, look- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 239 

ing like a wreath or garland. I had approached within 
fifteen or twenty feet of this rare beauty, when it suddenly 
made a quick motion or sweep with its magnificent tail, 
and instantly my nose was assaulted with a most formida- 
ble odor, of a suffocating character, and pungent in the 
nostrils like a mixture of cayenne pepper and ammonia. I 
staggered back under the volley, overwhelmed. I also felt 
at once a strong disposition at the pit of the stomach, as 
if I would retch. It was a skunk I had fallen in love 
with and pursued, and the knowledge of it broke upon me 
with disgust. Knowing the dreadful character of the 
beast, and dreading another volley, I retreated precipi- 
tately, insomuch that I stumbled over some vines and fell 
into a nest of brambles. On rising, I saw the foul beauty 
retiring with an apparent air of triumph, and as gracefully 
as ever. Fortunately, none of the fluid which creates this 
odor, struck me : had it done so, my position would have 
been disastrous in the extreme. As it was, the air was 
so saturated with it that my clothes were considerably in- 
fected, so that I carried a distinct odor of it about my per- 
son several days. 

I had often seen the skunk before, but never one so 
beautiful and large as this, though 1 saw many of the same 
sort afterward. There are many varieties of them, and 
this was the glory of them all. What glorious pets these 
creatures would be if they could only be divested of their 
perfume box ; for I dare say they are of a nature to be 
easily tamed. How odd that such extravagant beauty 
should be so foul ; and what a remarkable provision for 
defence, that of discharging an insufferable stink upon the 
adversary, and proudly retiring under the confusion thus 
produced ! It is difficult or impossible to comprehend 
what is the position or duty of the pole-cat in the economy 
of nature. It is to me a problem without a solution. 

fhese dreadful animals are sometimes extremely vicious, 



240. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

and have been known to attack men unprovoked. A gen- 
tleman who witnessed it gave me this instance : '' 1 was/' 
gaid he, '"far out on the frontier, hunting bears, Indians, 
and other wiki animals, with a party of seven or eight, 
headed by Judge Oowan, of Llano. We had encamped on 
a little creek that flows into the Colorado, not far from the 
mouth of the Concho. Judge Cowan and myself were sit- 
ting on the opposite banks of a little dirty, greenish looking 
pool, trying to course some bees that came there to get water 
and suck the mud. When we stepped up to the pool we 
saw two pole-cats a few paces from us, apparently engaged 
in courtship, but we paid them no attention. The Judge 
was sitting on his hunkers closely watching a bee that 
seemed about to depart, when one of these pole-cats leaped 
upon his back and clamped his teeth into the collar of his 
coat. The Judge grabbed him, and seeing the nature of 
the animal, uttered an exclamation of despair. He threw 
him to the ground with violence and as quickly as possible ; 
but it was all too late. The animal had let fly all over 
him, enveloping him in a dense fog of intolerable smell. 
His clothing was saturated. The Judge vomited violently, 
and said he would die the most miserable death that ever 
man died. I could not approach him near enough to give 
him any succor, had it been in my power to do so. He 
was compelled to strip himself to his shirt and drawers, 
and even then emitted so great an odor as to be well-nigh 
unendurable. The worst of it to him was, that it was 
winter ; a fierce norther might be momentarily expected, 
and there was not a human residence, where clothing 
could be obtained, within a hundred miles. The result 
was that the Judge had to wrap up in blankets and stay 
by the fire for several days, while his clothes were buried in 
the earth to extract the smell. It had that effect to a 
great degree, but still the Judge was rather a disagreeable 
neighbor during the rest of the expedition." 



TWO THOUSAi^D MILES lis^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 241 



AlfCIENT Ruii^s. 

From Coglau's Cave rode south-west five miles to .river 
San Saba, whose glorious valley is here a solitude, but 
such it has not always been. Here are the crumbling 
ruins of a mighty edifice of carved stone ; and the remains 
of a net- work of irrigation ditches, extending miles along 
the river, tell of a former population, enlightened, pros- 
perous, and multitudinous. This was a colony of farmers, 
miners and evangelists, established by the devoted Fran- 
ciscan Fathers to do good in the dark places, and after 
years of peace, they were set upon by the treacherous sav- 
ages about them, and not one was left to tell the sad tale. 
In a single night, perhaps in a single hour, the red-handed 
savages did more harm than they ever have been, or ever 
can be capable of doing good.* This terrible butchery 
struck such horror into the hearts of the devoted Fathers 
that they never attempted to reestablish their* colony, and 
this beautiful land has been left in its native wildness 
since. Even the adventurous Americans and colonizing 
Germans have not sought to possess this ground that has 
drunk torrents of innocent blood. This is said to have 
occurred in 1742, but the ruins might lead one to suspect 
a more ancient date. 

* The Catholic priests of Texas believe that this colony was not destroyed by 
Indians, but by Mexican and European robbers. Some color is given to this by 
the fact that silver mines were worked in the vicinity, and the robbers may have 
supposed it was in the possession of the priests. And yet it is hard to believe 
that those in search of silver alone, would have imbrued their hands in such 
wholesale slaughter, allowing not one to survive. 

II 



VII. 

FoKT McKavett. — Military Life ik the 

WlLDERjq^ESS. 

QUARTERED at night at Fort McKavett, with the 
sutler, who kindly gave me shelter, as there were 
no citizens to whom I might apply. This is a place that 
nature has made all beautiful; situated at the head of the 
San Saba in a deep amphitheatre, in a noble grove of oak 
and elm. An immense, boundless plain rises just beyond, 
and rolls away hundreds of miles, rising here and there 
into mountatnous ridges. Six companies of troops, four 
of negroes, are stationed here, to guard the frontier and 
lead a life of unsurpassed laziness. The officers and men, 
so far as I saw them, carried about with them an air of 
immense languor — as if they had nothing to do and did 
not particularly desire anything to do. I should think 
the life of a United States officer at one of these remote 
posts, unless he has great resources within himself, must 
be one of profound stupidity. And what must it be to 
ignorant men, whose life is bounded by what they see ! It 
seems to me that nature would rot. I once heard a good 
old lady say that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop." 
This is true, for if the mind is not diverted by some good 
and useful occupation, it will go into wickedness and pro- 
duce a foul crop of uncleanliness. What crops of unclean- 
liness must grow in the minds of these men, languidly and 
nervelessly strolling before me, as if the noise of the grass- 
hopper in his little flight was an insufferable weight! 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 243 

Place a body of French officers and troops in the same 
situation, and thejAvould soon hatch a new revolution. I 
do not believe that an idle man can go to Heaven ; and 
none of them are virtuous. While among these people I 
was continually thinking of Thompson's " Castle of Indo- 
lence," and I doubt not that this singularly somnolent 
creation was suggested to his mind by observing a military 
encampment in time of peace. 



VII. 

Rode north over a mighty, rolling prairie, with parks 
of live oak, mounting higher and higher into the ethereal 
regions. Grandest grazing country in the world, whether 
for sheep, horses, or cattle. 



VIII. 

AT noon rode on a loffcy '^backbone," from which it 
seemed that the entire universe lay below me! This 
point is probably three thousand feet above the sea. Naked 
stones and desolation. It is a region of profound silence, 
save the perpetual beating of the winds. The only living 
creatures are a few Mexican buzzards, with white wings, 
floating lazily in the upper regions, and lizards warming 
themselves on the rocks. 

The Horn^ed Feog. 

Some of these lizards are so original in their appear- 
ance that I stop to capture one, which is easy to do, as his 
motions are not fleet. He is an oddity, and if he were as 
big as an elephant, he would be the most monstrous of 
creatures. Even as he is, only three to five inches long, 
his appearance is decidedly monstrous. He is the connect- 
ing link between the frog and the lizard, and so much of 
either that it is hard to say of which he most partakes! 
He is called the horned frog, but I can see no reason why 
he may not just as well be called the horned lizard. 
His feet are those of the lizard, his body jmrt frog and 
part lizard, the lizard predominating; his tail part lizard 
and part pollywog. He has however, portions of his 
building which are peculiarly his own, suggesting neither 
frog nor lizard, nor any other animal or reptile that walks 
or swims or flies. His head is a complete, widely open 
angle, adorned with a multitude of brisk scales projecting 
upward and backward like horns, two of them towering 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 245 

prominently above all the rest, giving the little creature an 
exceedingly ferocious aspect. Two lines of horns project 
down his body, one on each flank and the other above the 
spinal column. He is a dark grey, with minute white 
spots sprinkled all over him, and his eyes are a brilliant, jet 
black, like two bird-shots stuck into his frontispiece. His 
mouth when open is prodigious, looking as if it might 
swallow Jonah as easily as the whale did. His motion, 
like his general make up, is a mixture of frog and lizard 
— a hop, skip and crawl, but the latter seems his favorite 
method of propulsion. Now imagine this creature, with 
all his horns and monstrous assemblage, increased in size 
to an elephant or buffalo, and conceive yourself coming 
upon him unawares on the wide prairie or in the deep for- 
ests ! Would not the hair stand on end, and would not 
human nature sink under the dreadful apparition ! And 
yet, during the Cretaceous age, just such a creature as 
this, only many times bigger than the buffalo or elephant, 
peoi3led these very plains— the great iguanodon. This 
little creature is, possibly, the lineal descendant of that 
monster of the ancient world, altered by adaptation to the 
changing circumstances and climes. And singularly 
enough, this little descendant of the great iguanodon, 
sticks closely only to the Cretaceous regions in which his 
monstrous ancestors flourished ages ago, and is rarely seen 
beyond them. Formidable as he seems, and terrible per- 
haps his ancestry, this little creature is a model of gentle- 
ness and docility. When you take him into your hands, 
he looks at you with his little dark, brilliant eyes, with an 
expression which seems to say — '' I would not hurt you for 
the world ! " You may turn him over and tickle and pro- 
voke him ever so much, yet his temper will remain unruf- 
fled, and he will still look at you with the same tender ex- 
pression. Such is his sweetness of temper under all cir- 
cumstances, that he is a great favorite with the little 



246 TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IN^ TEXAS Ols HORSEBACK. 

Texans, who frequently drop him under their dresses, at 
the neck, that he may tickle them as he crawls upward or 
downward on the naked flesh. He is a pet with all who 
know him and have leisure to fondle him. He takes his 
m<jals on a mixture of flies and tender herbage, and his 
drink he gathers from the night dews. 

Tliis great ridge or backbone is the dividing line that 
separates the waters of the San Saba from those of the 
Concho. 

Bivouac with Ebony Soldiers. 

As I approached Kickapoo Springs at sundown, after a 
leisurely but most solitary ride of thirty miles, five negroes, 
black as the ace of spades, wearing the uniform of the 
U. S. Cavalry, advanced to meet me, and when I asked for 
lodging for the night, their heavy lips opened with a pleas- 
ant smile, displaying their large white teeth. "With 
pleasure, sir," said they with one accord ; " we are glad 
that you have come ;" adding that they had plenty to eat, 
but were sorry they could furnish me no bedding. In the 
kindness of their hearts, it never occurred to them that I 
would be loath to accept their bedding if they had abun- 
dance of it. They were of the 10th U. S. Cavalry, placed 
here to guard a station and attend a small herd of mules 
belonging to the San Antonio and El Paso mail line. Tliey 
had a respectable little stone house for their quarters, and 
their mules were enclosed at night in a stone corral, over 
which one sentinel, relieved at intervals, stands guard 
while the others sleep. They were all privates, and were 
as neat as new pins, even their brogans glittering with pol- 
ish. Their rifles, sabres and pistols were brilliant with 
careful keeping. Having supplied my horse bountifully 
with hay, corn and barley, and secured him in the corral, 
they invited me to supper, at which I sat round the board 
with them. They were very polite and attentive to their 



TWO THOUSAi^"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 24? 

guest, and seemed anxious that I should have the best 
morsels. Their table etiquette was faultless and cordial. 
Their supper consisted of the usual soldier rations, flanked 
by wild turkey and trout. These with the mules were the 
sole occupants of this isolated station. 

After supper we sat together out doors in the delight- 
ful night air, smoking our pipes and conversing familiarly. 
The negro is perhaps the most social of the human race, 
and I was curious to know how they liked this solitude. 
They had no books or papers and could not read them 
if they had. "Ah," said they unanimously, "it is the 
wearisomest life in the world. We just counts the min- 
utes on our fingers as they go. We like soldier's life where 
there's people, 'specially black ones, but way out here in 
the wilderness, where we never see any one, 'cepting it's a 
chance traveller like you, who is good enough to stop with 
us at night, it's just like being buried alive. We couldn't 
stand it at all, 'cepting that we know that our 'listment will 
soon be out. Then we are going right back to civilization. 
We never have anything to do here but to feed and rub 
the mules, and eat and sleep. No Injuns ever troubles us. 
We wish they sometimes would, just to stir us up a little. 
They passes all around us, but never gives us a call." 

I felt sorrowful for my ebony entertainers. The negro 
loves slothfulness, but here he has it in too big a volume ; 
he is crammed until he feels the dead weight of satiety. I 
asked them which they preferred, their life here or life in 
the cotton field ? " Oh, give us a little cotton field of our 
own, and we would stay by it and work it forever ! " — but 
I could not, though I j^ut the question by indirect ways 
several times, get them to say that they would prefer a 
cotton field with an overseer. Their military life had 
given them a certain degree of manliness and individual- 
ity, which they evidently would not be willing to sink in a 
life so suggestive of their former condition. 



SiS TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

The negro soldier, I am told, rarely or never deserts, 
and he makes by no means an indifferent man of war ; 
being very tractable, scrupulously obedient to orders, and 
taking readily to military airs and manners. The late war 
showed that, when well disciplined and officered, they will 
-Stand a great deal of wounds and death. I have observed 
that they have a poetical, almost superstitious devotion to 
their government : they are truly patriotic. It was per- 
haps the fatal mistake of the South, in the late war, that 
she did not at once manumit her slaves and put a large 
body of them in her armies ; and such was the desire of 
her generals and soldiers and no doubt of a large majority 
of her people, but the politicians, who are generally behind 
the people, would not dare attempt it. 

My soldier friends seemed anxious I should talk with 
them all night, but having drawn their fund of knowledge 
and conveyed to them about all I had to impart, I bade 
them good night, and spreading my blanket and great 
coat under a live oak, slept delightfully in the open air. 



IX. 



KiCKAPOO Springs. — Pretty but Scaly. 

AFTER breakfast my soldier friends pressed me with 
such cordial hospitality that I determined to remain 
with them till another morning, and thus give my horse a 
good rest. And here gushes out one of those magnificent 
fountains for which the mountain regions of Texas are 
celebrated. It issues at the base of the great backbone, 
from a crevice in a huge rock, in a glorious outburst of 
limpid water, forming a pool twenty feet in width and four 
in depth, as brilliant a sheet of water as earth can show. 
It glides, sparkling and flashing, down the valley, shaded 
with live oak and pecans, bordered with a rich green 
lawn, on which the sweet grasses are a foot high, making 
a soft, thick carpet beneath the feet. It is alive with 
trout, who sport in wild play, while the squirrel chatters 
and the raven shrieks above them, stealing his chance to 
seize one when he unwarily slips into too shallow waters. 
As in every other instance within my knowledge, this foun- 
tain bursts from the foot of the Cretaceous hills, and is so 
tepid as to be almost thermal. It is a place of charming 
beauty, and yet so wild and lonely are its surroundings 
that one feels oppressed with the shadow of an undefined 
superstition as he wanders along the valley. The silence 
is profound, save the murmuring of the water, the splash- 
ing of the trout, the chatter of the squirrels, and the cry 
of the ravens. 

I could but mark the demeanor of the dark soldier 



250 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

who walked by my side. He was cautions and solemn, 
and kept his eyes rolling from one direction to another, in 
careful scrutiny. He said in a half undertone, as we sat 
on the bank of the stream and watched the trout : *' This 
is the scaliest place in Texas, and it looks so too. I don't 
like the ways of them ravens. They make me think of 
dead men's bones. They 'mind me of hearses and their 
black plumes. They and the Injuns are close kin and 
always go together. Many a poor man has seen his last 
sunset here, and these same ravens that they say never 
die, picked their bones." He then told me the tale of 
many Indian murders at Kickapoo Springs, and pointed 
out a spot where he and his companions had found a dead 
man's bones, which they carefully collected and buried. 
♦Said he : *^ We never go far from the station, and when 
we do we keep a sharp lookout." He believed that Indians 
'^ loafed " around the Springs at all times, watching an 
opportunity to pierce some one's heart. 

Hail-Storms. 

'*And not only," said he, "is this place dangerous 
from Injuns and wild animals, but it is dangerous even 
from the elements. It storms with thunder and hail here 
sometimes, worse than any battle that ever was fought. 
Last summer I was standing in the door of the station- 
house, and I saw a great dust coming over the prairie. I 
watched the dust, and presently I saw gi'eat white balls 
striking the ground and bouncing up again and coming 
to'rds the station just like cannon-balls. Them, sir, was 
nothing but blocks of ice, as big as my two fists. Pres- 
ently they struck the walls of the corral and popped like 
bombshells. If they had hit any man, sir, they'd a knocked 
him stone dead and gone through and through him. These 
big ones didn't fall thick, scattering like ; but directly the 
little ones, about as big as walnuts and hen eggs, come by 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IJS" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 251 

the millioi]. They rattled on the roof, beat the limbs off 
the trees, beat the mules half to death, killed cautions of 
squirrels and ravens, and just kivereci the earth. I never 
seen the beat of it. Such a thing as that catching a man 
out in a prairie, there'd be no redemption. One of them, 
sir, some time ago, stoned a flock of sheep to death, near 
Fort Davis, and the old herder only saved himself by git- 
ting under a rock." 

He then told me a sad tale which is true. A few years 
ago a major in the U. S. Army, travelling with his wife 
and daughter and an escort, from one of the remote forts 
to San Antonio, encamped at night in the valley of Kicka- 
poo Creek, near the stream. At a late hour of the night 
one of these terrible hailstorms came up. Knowing* the 
danger of his situation, as soon as the storm abated suffi- 
ciently to allow him to expose himself to it, he stepped 
out of his tent, and perceived an immense white wall, steal- 
ing rapidly but silently upon him. He rushed into the 
tent and gave the alarm, but before he could get his family 
out, the great rolling wall of ice was already crushing irre- 
sistibly around them. His little daughter was swept away 
and lost ; his ambulance and mules were borne off, and he 
and his wife escaped with difficulty. The little girl's body 
and the ambulance were found the next day some miles 
below. Within an hour the singular flood of hailstones 
and water had entirely passed, and Kickapoo Creek rolled 
along with no more than its usual current. 

I asked the soldier if such storms were of frequent oc- 
currence. "1 never seen but that one," said he, ''but 
they may be expected at any time in summer. When yoa 
see a red-looking cloud coming, thundering awful, if you 
ain't near a good strong roof, look for a hole in the rocks." 

I have 'myself had some experience of these hailstorms, 
and know that they are formidable. 



X. 



Another delightful night under the live oak, and a bath 
before sunrise, still more delightful, in the glorious foun- 
tain. And then, after breakfast, despite the solicitations of 
my soldier friends, who desired me to wait another day, 
that I might have the company of the mail coach, I struck 
out on my solitary ride. Parks of live oak ; grand rolling 
prairies, green as summer ; flocks of deer and antelopes, 
which gaze at me a while, whisking their tails ner\rously, 
and then bound away. Then a mountainous region — 
dreary, dry and desolate in the extreme. Finally, at noon, 
a region utterly treeless, but beautiful in its green carpet, 
and graceful in its undulations. Even the creeks, without 
a stem upon their fertile banks. All is nudity, except the 
ever luxuriant, glorious grass. This is like being alone on 
the wide, wide sea. I seem but an infinitesimal speck in 
this vast expanse. Should I be bounced by too many In- 
dians here, what could I do but stand and fight ? If I 
would run, where would I run to ? There is no place to 
hide. 

Company Enough. — A Texas Norther. 

It is excessively warm. No summer day could drag 
more oppressively than this. The sun exerts his fury, and 
the air is deadly — unnaturally — still. Not a blade of grass 
bends its tall head, but stands bolt upright and motion- 
less. A haze issues out of the ground, or is it the atmos- 
phere so motionless that it becomes visible ? This, I utter 
audibly to myself, is the very condition that precedes an 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 253 

earthquake, when all nature falls paralyzed through dread 
of the approaching catastrophe. Herds of deer are hurry- 
ing over the plains toward the mountains, some with their 
tongues hanging from their lips, like dogs panting for 
coolness. Far to the north [ observe a little black, ragged, 
wispy cloud, hanging above the horizon, with its base sunk 
beneath it. It lifts up and shoots out great black arms 
with singular rapidity, as if some powerful propulsive 
force attended it. It seems a thing of life, so instinct is it 
with motion. In the meantime the deadness of the atmos- 
phere has become more appalling, and the sickly heat has 
increased. I take off my coat and vest and unbare my 
bosom to the broad prairie, saying like the fainting nymph: 
*^ Come, gentle air ! " My horse is as wet with sweat as if 
he had just emerged from a lake, and he pants with heat. 
I think of loitering in cool saloons and sipping iced juleps, 
being so hot that my imagination comes to relieve me with 
cool and tempting pictures. Looking again, the black 
cloud has covered half the heavens, shooting up great spires 
and puffing up shapeless masses with electric rapidity. 

Suddenly, with no warning whatever, save in these por- 
tentous phenomena, a storm of Arctic wind is precipitated 
upon me. Its impact is peculiar. No light currents pre- 
cede it as the messengers of coming change, but it strikes 
at once with full force, like a great rushing flood with per- 
pendicular walls. It feels as if it had been caged for 
months in caverns of ice, or swept thousands of miles over 
fields of snow. It is like stepping out of a hot vapor bath 
into a snow-drift. Before I could get my discarded vest 
and coat upon me, I was chilled to the marrow, and to 
recover a comfortable degree of warmth seemed a hopeless 
undertaking. 

This is a regular Texas Norther, and a more eager, 
nipping, searching wind does not exist. There are no in- 
termissions of quiet, no stopping to take breath, but the 



254 TWO THOUSAND MILES liT TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 

great stream of Arctic air pours on in a continuous flood. 
This continuity, this ceaseless activity, this perpetual mo- 
tion is its terror. Each atmospheric particle eternally, 
irresistibly, pushing the particle before it, it will penetrate 
every interstice of the garment and reach the naked flesh 
at last, in spite of all the fortifications of dry-goods that 
may be piled up against it. To ride square into its face, as I 
do, over this vast prairie, where it has unobstructed sweep, 
is really terrible. It is like charging upon a deadly array 
of icicles, all with points keener than needles. The eyes, 
ears, and nose suffer fearfully; and entering the mouth, it 
not only stocks that cavity full of cold, but eliminates every 
drop of moisture, making it dry as a chip and extremely 
uncomfortable. The fingers become benumbed, and a 
heavy pair of boots avail little to protect the feet. The 
particles of raging atmosphere force each other through the 
pores of the leather, under the socks, and soon the lower 
extremities ache with exquisite pain. Truly, this is the 
most searching wind that ever blew. It will find out every 
part of the body, applying blister after blister of cold, 
until the last particle of warmth is expelled. The mer- 
cury has tumbled at once from about ninety to near the 
freezing point, an instantaneous fall of near sixty degrees ; 
so that where summer reigned but a moment ago, it is now 
the bleakness and terror of winter. The annals of meteor- 
ology are without example of such rapid change elsewhere 
on earth. To make the mutter worse, a driving misty rain 
begins to fall, making my situation to the last degree dis- 
tressing. It is blown full into my face. It does not come 
directly from the north, but a few degrees to the west, 
exactly into the course which I am pursuing. 

Whence come these remarkable winds, and what use 
do they subserve in the economy of nature ? They are 
exclusively Texan, and are unknown beyond its borders, 
save a short distance across the Rio Grande. Below the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES Ili TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 255 

Texas coast their impetuous career is continued a hundred 
to two hundred miles, though sometimes they die out be- 
fore reaching the coast. When they have been unusually 
prolonged and severe, they "right about face," returning 
whence they came, with their intense cold taken off, but 
still too chilly to be comfortable. From this it appears 
that they bank up the atmosphere over the Gulf to an 
inordinate height, and when the propulsive force from 
the north has ceased, it slides back to its starting 
point. 

It is clear that they take their rise on the Llano 
Estacado, or great Staked Plain. The atmosphere over 
this great plain becomes heated and rarefied, and is finally 
expelled from the hot surface on which it rests, and the 
cold blast rushes down from the upper strata with tre- 
mendous force to take its place and fill up the void. AVhere 
this occurs, it is a monstrous Niagara Falls in the atmos- 
phere, the current of cold air plunging over a precipice 
some ten thousand feet high, then spreading out and rush- 
ing over all Texas. That this current comes from the 
line of perpetual snow and ice, can scarcely be doubted by 
one who has felt the intense and singular iciness of its 
breath. No one, I suppose, has ever happened along 
when this great flood of frozen air was tumbling down 
from the upper regions, but should any one do so, I dare 
say he will remember it to the last day of his life, should 
he be fortunate enough to make good his escape from be- 
ing pressed to death to the earth and pinned to it with 
stakes of ice. If nature can have anything more terrible 
than the point of descent to the earth of one of these 
Texas Northers, I am not able to conceive what it may be. 

This I take to be the meteorological philosophy of these 
northers. If it is not the correct one, then my philosophy 
is stumped. And yet I see in them a most beneficent ar- 
rangement of the Creator, terrible as they generally are to 



256 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

those who are exposed to them. They make the only win- 
ter that is known in Texas, and they give to the frugal 
countryman the only showing he has to save his bacon. 
Without the norther, there would not exist a single ham or 
a clear middling in Texas, save what comes from the north- 
west. Indeed, human nature might stagnate from the un- 
broken prevalence of summer heats ; nature might sink 
relaxed, but these northers come by to prop her up, to for- 
tify her, and infuse a new current of energy and vigorous 
manhood into her bones and muscles. Then in the wide 
Tertiary lowlands, the new earth being filled with carbona- 
ceous matter, must be constantly discharging malarious 
gases upon the atmosphere, not promotive of health. The 
norther brushes all of this away into the Gulf of Mexico, 
and supplies, in place of it, the purest atmosphere of the 
tenth heaven. After the norther has subsided, nothing 
can be more sweet and delicious than the atmosphere of 
Texas. It fairly rings with brilliance, sparkles with elec- 
trical purity, and almost intoxicates like old, pure cham- 
pagne. The lungs drink it in and rejoice. If you will 
rub a cat's back in a dark corner after the subsidence of a 
norther, you will be astonished at the amazing number of 
electric sparks that will flash from her. All nature is 
then literally surcharged with electricity, and is drunk 
with health and joy. They never hurt anybody, except 
those who happen to be caught out by one in a great prai- 
rie, and then the suffering he endures, terrible as it is, is 
but temporary. He is all right as soon as he can get to 
fire. It leaves no after-claps of colds, pneumonia, influ- 
enza or consumption. Even a far gone consumptive 
receives no harm, but actual benefit — so great is the deli- 
cious purity of these terrible winds. They usually last 
about three days, sometimes a week. They occur fre- 
quently from November to March, but terrible as they 
often seem, and really are, the mercury rarely falls below 



TWO THOUSAN]^ MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 257 

freezing during their greatest fury. They are usually not 
accompanied by rain, but when they are, their terror is in- 
creased, particularly in the upper regions of the State, where 
the rain is often converted into a stinging hail. Some- 
times they break in upon an impending rain, and the 
clouds scatter before them, like a flock, of ducks before the 
sportsman — leaving a beautiful sky without a cloud-speck 
upon it.* 



XI 

It is night, and it is one of Tartarian blackness. It 
seems as if the clouds had descended to the earth, and 
were driven past me by the furious norther. In addition 
to mv trouble from wind and rain, now comes the confu- 
sion resultino^ from the dread of beino; lost on the bound- 
less prairie and freezing to death, since there is no possi 
bility of kindling a fire. The road is no more perceptible 
to my eye than if none existed. I leave my horse to his 
own instincts, and urge him ahead with the spur. He 
puffs as he labors ahead, to dispel the whirring wind 
from his nostrils. In the pitchy darkness, I plunged into 
a rapid, seething river, and crossed ; its frigid waves 
rising high on my horse's flanks, and inundating ray boots. 
This I knew was the Concho, the river of plains. 

* One of the best accounts I ever heard of a Texas Norther, was that conveyed 
to me by an old Scotch gentleman, who was then new in Texas. We were riding 
out together, and the atmosphere was as usual, oppressively close. He bared 
his bosom to catch some fresh air. I knew what was coming, and said nothing. 
Presently the norther came. The old gentleman said ; "What a cool pleasant 
breeze ! " In about two minutes he commenced buttoning up his clothing, and 
broke out : "What a d— d cold wind !" The severest northers in the lower 
portion of the State are unaccompanied by rain, but usually by long white or 
leaden clouds, near the horizon. 



258 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 



XII. 

"Speed, Malice, speed" — amid storm, darkness and 
sleet — stiff, hungry, and half froze to death. A half 
hour passed on. Plunged into another river, which took 
my horse to mid flanks, drowning my boots ; rose upon an 
eminence and a multitude of lights gleamed before me. 
Presently I was in Mr. Babcock's hotel at Fort Concho, 
and felt a thrill of delight as I sat by the blazing fire, 
emitting a small fog as the heat expelled the water from 
my saturated, garments. I had travelled forty-four miles 
during the day — one half of it in the face of terrors. It 
was midnight when I slept. 



DIVISION Y. 



I. 

Camp Con"cho. — All Grotesque. 

ON stepping out after breakfast, I realized the oddity 
of the situation. I had penetrated into the strangest 
land in the world, in which everything is grotesque. 
Nature had disrobed herself even to the undershirt and 
drawers, and these fitted as tightly as the gossamer dress 
of an athlete. Dame Nature had sprung suddenly before 
me in the garb of a rope-dancer, the thin fabric being all 
Lincoln green. This picture came to my mind so vividly 
that I caught myself, for the first time in my life, laugh- 
ing at Nature, which I love so well. Hitherto I had fouud 
her, if not always splendidly clad and adorned, yet not in 
a state of transparent nudity ; and this condition seemed 
all the more absurd in view of the scudding mists and 
stinging norther, which continued with reckless fury. 
" fair undress, best dress ! " is not true of dame Nature 
any more than it would be true of any other dame in such 
a tempest as this. 

The vision is here as unobstructed as it Avould be on 
the back of a giant billow in mid ocean, when there is no 
spray in the air. There is not a tree or even so much as 
a twig that is visible. The biggest vegetation that grows 
is a blade of grass. When urchins grow naughty, mater- 
familias is compelled, from the nature of the case, to apply 
a good box to the ears, and what Dominie Sampson would 



260 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OJii HORSEBACK. 

(]o in trying to preside over a nest of unruly school-butters, 
would be past finding out if cow-hides were not readily 
procurable. You may travel a half day's journey and 
scarcely find twigs enough to roast a sparrow's egg. 

In the distance, to the north, there is a range of low 
mountains, which are also grotesque, if not positively ab- 
surd. They appear to have once been great mountains, 
lifting their peaks into the snowy clouds ; but a race of 
giants, passing by, shaved them off to a ridiculous, squat 
dwarfiness, as tables, perhaps, upon which to spread their 
victuals ; or platforms, perhaps, from which the gigantic 
demagogues harangued the dear populace ; or stages, 
perhaps, upon which they enacted farce, or tripped it on 
the light fantastic. Their tops are smooth-shaven plains, 
and though they are strung out, one after another, as far 
as the eye can reach, they are as indistinguishable from 
one another as two Dromios. 

I have been in natural situations in which I felt '^ cab- 
ined, cribbed and confined," and wished that I had the 
wings of a dove that I might fly away ; but here, too 
much freedom is oppressive, and the mind calls for a limit. 
The sky and horizon are too remote, and it seems the 
"void infinite.'^ 

It is situated between two rivers at their point of junc- 
tion, and the point is grotesque. Nature can do, or will 
do nothing here as she does it in other places. When two 
rivers run together, with a long tongue of land projecting 
between them, that tongue is generally a low sedimentary 
deposit, crowded with forest and vine that rejoice in the 
fertility. Here the tongue is elevated fifty feet above the 
rivers, commanding the adjacent territory in whatever 
direction you look. The tongue is thickest at its point. 
Narrow strips of land elevated above the surrounding 
regions elsewhere, are barren to the last degree, generally 
naked stones ; but here it is a rich alluvial soil, looking as 



TWO THOUSAND ^ILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 261 

if it had been compounded for some fine lady's garden. 
In other regious the channels of rivers usually have a 
gradual descent, at least to the water's edge, but here they 
precipitate downward, like the plumb to the line, and, if 
deviating at all from the perpendicular, sloping under. 
The waters of rivers in other lands look dark in tempes- 
tuous weather ; but the waters of these rivers flash like 
diamonds whether the skies are brilliant or black. In 
other rivers, the cat-fish and eels for the most part wear 
yellow skins, and have little, snaky, weazen eyes ; but here 
their skins are as blue as litmus, and they have big pop- 
eyes. In other countries trees grow on the top of the 
ground ; but here they absolutely grow underground, in 
rank, dense forests, revelling in luxuriant growth. This 
seems incredible, I know ; and it is all of that, but it is so. 
Prodigious forests of gigantic trees under the ground, 
growing so thickly that a mole can scarcely ride his 
brother between them! It is "prodigious," but it is so. 
I shall go with my reader into one of these subterranean 
forests after awhile, and we shall find them greatly peopled 
with squirrels, an odd sort of bird, and we shall hear the 
whiz of the rattlesnake around us as we cut our way 
through these deep shades and trackless depths. And we 
shall see dark, silent pools of water, at which the inhabi- 
tants of the subterranean forests drink. 

Art Imitates Her. 

And nature here is not alone in its grotesqueness. Art 
has sat too near the rose, and has become penetrated with 
its fragrance. She imitates nature's example, and equals 
her on a diminutive scale. The bricks of which some of 
the houses are built, are very grotesque. In other lands 
they are moulded of clay and sand and burnt in fire. 
Here they are moulded of clay and straw and are baked in 
the sun. In other lands bricks are red -, here they are 



262 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

cream to dark dove — sometimes black. In other lands 
bricks are but bricks in size ; here they are great blocks, 
aping great stones dug out of the bowels of the earth. In 
other lands bricks are cemented together by lime and 
sand ; here they are placed in the dry wall and left to fur- 
nish their own cement by gradually melting together. 
Thus if one should build a fabric of blocks of molasses 
candy, and place it out under the dews of heaven, it would 
soon become one solid mass, and in heavy rains might all 
melt away. So might the adobe houses — for such these 
bricks and the houses built of them are called — but they 
are protected against that fatality by the rarity of the 
rains. Tliey are the true dry weather houses. 

And the roofs of these grotesque houses are exceed- 
ingly grotesque. On the tops of the walls they place a 
series of stout poles, slanting to the rear, the front wall 
being built considerably higher for this purpose. Then 
they lay on a thick stratum of long grass ; upon this they 
place a stratum of mud ; then another stratum of grass, 
then another of mud, until they have built it to the desired 
thickness. In process of time these various strata be- 
come greatly consolidated, but never so much so as to pre- 
vent colonies of stinging lizards from taking up their resi- 
dence in them; from which they descend almost nightly 
during warm weather, into the beds of the occupants, 
making their quarters for a time entirely too hot for them.* 
But grotesque as they are, these houses, from the thickness 
of their walls and roofs, are warm in winter and deliciously 

* These stinging lizards are small creatures, from an inch to two inches long 
exactly resembling the picture of the Scorpion in the almanacs, with a turned 
up tail, in which they have a stinging apparatus which can sting an indefinite 
number of times in very rapid succession. When thej"^ get between one's flesh 
and the clothes, which they sometimes do, they create a great sensation by the 
rapidity of their fire. Their sting is sharper than that of a wasp, attended with a 
strange sensation of heat and a faint, peculiar odor of fire, but the pain quickly 
departs, and there is little or no swelling. They are verj"- fond of Mexican houses, 
and all wooden houses that have cracks in which they may enter. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOUSEBACK. 263 

cool in tlie summer. Such is the Babcock House in which 
I am quartered. 

Seven hundred soldiers, with brass buttons, armed to 
the teeth, stationed in this boundless prairie, where there 
is nothing to fight, save a few straggling Comanches and 
Lipans, seem to me the climax of grotesqueness. Why that 
is enough to clean out the last Indian in Texas before 
breakfast. And yet they do not do it ; which is also a 
grotesqueness, rivalling if not surpassing that of nature 
hereabout. These men, except the officers, are all blacks, 
belonging to the 10th U. S. Cavalry. There are ten com- 
panies, and it is the capital military post of the State. 

The quarters of the officers are also grotesque, when 
considered from the standpoint of this vast wilderness. 
They are spacious buildings of stone, with all the mod- 
ern improvements, even richly furnished, and would be no 
mean feather in the architectural plume of any city. 
When the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope built a palace 
of oriental splendor in the Arabian desert, it was grotesque ; 
and no less so are the palaces that Uncle Sam has so pro- 
fusely spent his money on in this wilderness, He poured 
out his money to the tune of several hundred thousand 
dollars, and evidently came to stav. 

Big Expectations— And What They Came To. 

The sutler's store is palatial. It had to be, to play 
its part in the grotesque role. Built of noble, carved 
blocks of cream- colored limestone, it would attract atten- 
tion on magnificent Broadway. He evidently came to stay, 
but he did not. It was built by the sutler who preceded 
the present one. He thought so much of his post that he 
contracted to pay the influential gentleman who procured 
the appointment for him, five thousand dollars in periodi- 
cal instalments. Two of these he paid promptly, but de- 
faulting on the third, he was promptly discharged from his 



264 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOliSEBACK. 

post, and the present sutler appointed to supersede him. 
He appealed for mercy, but in vain. He was forced to 
sell his palatial store-house and Jarge stock of goods to his 
successor at a heavy loss, and was turned loose a bankrupt 
with a large family to support. His main text ever since 
then, as I learn, has been : '' Put not your faith in Princes 
or the sons of Princes : " varied occasionally by the substi- 
tution of politicians for princes. While he liath waxed 
lean, his successor hath waxed fat ; because he did not have 
the palace to build, but bought it at a low price, eke his 
goods, and possibly had no stipend to pay to an influen- 
tial friend. Credat Jiidmiis Apella ! He enjoys the monop- 
oly of the trade of at least a thousand regular, liberal 
consumers, besides many transient customers, and never 
loses a cent. He credits none but men of the army, and 
the paymaster always pays his bills before he pays the 
soldier. It is no wonder these positions are sought with 
so much avidity. Sutlers always get rich if they have 
not to pay too much for the whistle, and if they do not 
themselves become corrupted by too rapid money-making, 
and drift into spendtlirifts. 

You can buy anything in this sutler's store, from a 
box of axle grease, or a Scotch herring, to a roll of Brus- 
sel's lace or a cask of Holland schnapps ; but I bought 
nothing but a single cock-tail, for which I paid a quarter 
of a dollar. It was as good, with the exception that there 
was no ice in it, as any I ever sipped in the gaudy saloons 
of Broadway.* 

The HoLy Angels. 

Near the Fort on the opposite bank of the North Con- 
cho, sits a cluster of adobe houses, known as Sant Angeles. 

♦ I understand that they keep two classes of bottles : one dass, filled with ex- 
cellent liquor, for the officers and strangers who look like gentlemen, and another 
class, filled with very villainous stuff, for the common soldiers, and strangers who 
'do not look like gentlemen ; but they all have to pay a quarter of a dollar. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 265 

I travelled thither, crossing the river by leaping from one 
big stone to another, until I lit on the north bank. Being 
in it I wished I were away, yet a singular spell bound me 
to loiter an hour. Its population is about a hundred, said 
to be very bad subjects, and appearances certainly do 
not belie the tales that are told on them. The males are 
Mexicans and Americans, and the females all Mexicans, as 
far as I saw them. The former are said to earn their wages 
by enticing the negro soldiery into their dens and depriv- 
ing them of their money at the card table, and sometimes 
by bolder exploits on the road. Some are suspected to be 
birds who have flown from distant quarters to escape the 
meshes of the law. The women appear to be such crea- 
tures as would naturally be attracted to such men, and are 
said to share their enterprises and profits, as faithful and 
skilful decoys. I never saw a folk whose countenances so 
boldly declared their business and the evil within. It is 
said that intellectual and pleasing engagements give beauty 
to the face and purity to the eye. This is undoubtedly 
true, to a great extent ; and so is the reverse of the prop- 
osition. Here it is bloated languor among the women and 
red-eyed deviltry among the men : their countenances are 
clouds that have no silver lining ; yet there is a swagger 
and devil-may-care about both. I could not help but 
think that if this folk should all go to the devil together, 
that worthy would be ashamed of his guests and slam the 
door in their faces. But it is a question with me whether 
people who sink to such depths really have any souls to go 
anywhere after they are dead. The soul may be the growth 
of a better life. It is a sad thought to think that every one 
of these was once fondled on a devoted mother's knee and 
was the hopeful pride of a father. If these live, let us 
offer a flower to their bleeding hearts. 

I was leered at with strange interest, though there 
"were none who undertook to force any familiarity upon 



266 TWO THOUSAi^D MILES I:N' TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

me. When they addressed me I responded with courtesy, 
but not that sort which encourages renewal. Some say 
that almost nightly some poor fellow is here sent to his 
long home with blade or pistol, but this is no doubt an 
exaggeration. The sutler has a branch stor-; here, and 
I should think that his clerk behooves to be a most cir- 
cumspect man of fortitude and nerve. 

The name of this place is sacrilegious, and he must be 
an impious or sarcastic wretch who so named it. It 
means the city of the " Holy Angels." If some Mexican 
thus named it, it is regular enough ; for you can hardly 
hear of a highwayman or big thief in Mexico, whose name 
is not " Jesus" or ^^ Emmanuel." * 

The Cemetery. — ''Unkkowx." 

Above the fort a few hundred yards, between the two 
rivers, is the cemetery, containing forty or fifty graves, 
marked with headstones, on quite a number of which is 
the inscription — " Unknown ;" which, though but a single 
word, tells to the heart a longer and sadder story than if 
the whole stone were filled with words. It tells of the 
traveller slain by the skulking highwayman or Indian ; of 
companion murdered by companion on the lonely roadside 
in the vast prairie, or the unsuspecting stranger enticed 
into the dens of the ^*' Holy Angels," and there slain for 
his money. It tells to him who stands and reads, that a 
foe lurks continually around him, awaiting his chance to 
lay him low and write above the sod that shall press his 
bosom — ''Unknown." He turns away sick at heart, de- 

* The city of the Holy Angels has improved very much since onr traveller 
visited it. The buflFalo hunters made it their head quavters, where they prepared 
their skins and meat for market, expelling the worst characters. Tom Green 
County, in which it is situated, has also received a considerable population since, 
whose presence was a continual menace to the Angels, compelling them either to 
mind their manners or depart. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 267 

termined to look for the foe behind every stone or turf in 
this wilderness. 

This post has been occupied by the army fifteen years at 
least, and always in considerable force ; and yet of the 
forty or fifty graves here, not more than half are of sol- 
diers, and there is not one of an officer ; which proves that 
men do not readily die here, and officers not at all. It 
probably required the hand of violence to put the ceme- 
tery in motion, and without it, it would be slimly inhab- 
ited, indeed. 

Col. Axdersox. — Oompagxoxs du Voyage. 

I called on Col. Anderson, commandant of the Post, 
whom I found like all West Pointers I ever knew, a .gen- 
tleman and scholar. I asked for a detail of two soldiers to 
accompany me, I proposing to defray expenses. He said 
he could not detail soldiers as an escort to private gentle- 
men, or for any private purpose. After explaining myself 
more fully, he said : ^'It is of the nature of a reconnois- 
sance, and may be of service to the country. I will not 
order my soldiers to go with you, but if two will volun- 
teer, I will give my consent." I thanked him and he 
added that I should have two good, reliable men if any 
at all. 

An hour later, two mulattoes in cavalry uniform called 
for me at Mrs. Babcock's. Conversing Avith them, I soon 
found that they suited me, and explaining fully my pro- 
posed route, I offered them fifty dollars^each" for their 
company. They promptly accepted, adding that they 
would report satisfaction to the Colonel and report in per- 
son to me at sunrise the following morning. They were 
bright, intelligent fellows, robust, free-born, and enlisted 
in New York City. They had seen considerable service on 
the frontier, but knew nothing of the country whither I 



268 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 

should lead them. One is Jones Johns by name ; the 
other John Powell. 

Promptly at sunrise they saluted me, mounted on 
strong horses, and formidably armed. We had seventy-two 
shots between us without reloading. Filling our haver- 
sacks with cheese and hard tack, and a little coffee and 
salt, we rode up the Concho. 



11. 



A Populous City. — Subterranean Forests. 

AFTER an hour or two we found ourselves riding 
through the streets of a populous city, whose in- 
habitants on seeing us scampered awa}^ in hot haste, and 
stood at their doors abusing us. As we drew near their 
doors, they skulked within and would not venture out again 
until we had turned our backs upon them ; seeing which 
they immediately returned to discharge their volleys of 
abuse : like some cowards who bluster greatly when they 
see their adversary has no desire to fight them. These are 
a peculiar folk, who build their residences under ground, 
and pile up mounds of dirt about the entrance, probably 
to prevent the ingress of floods when it rains. This is a 
city of Prairie Dogs, and I judge its population to be 
several thousand, from its extent and the clamor of the 
inhabitants. But why call these noisy little urbans dogs, 
since they in no respect resemble the dog ? It is true, when 
seen at a little distance, squatting at their holes barking 
at you, they look much like a fat puppy, and their bark is 
somewhat similar, but take one in your hands, and all sug- 
gestion of a canine ceases. He then becomes a fat, chunky- 
bodied squirrel, and such he really is, save that his tail is 
short and nearly hairless. He loves to sit on his hind- 
quarters as the squirrel does, and in such position yoii 
would surely take him for a fat squirrel who had lost his 
tail. He is edible, and save that his flesh has a slightly 
bitterish taste, it is much like that of a squirrel; being 
more juicy and tender. 



270 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

We captured several of these creatures, and not one of 
them but was fat almost to obesity. This would seem re- 
markable, in view of the fact that usually there is not 
about tlieir cities a sprig of grass, or anything on which 
they might feed. The American Encyclopedia says that 
they live only on grass, and graze only at night. Neither 
statement is correct. Grass is not their food, because, in 
the first place, their mouths are so constructed tliat they 
could not eat it without infinite discomfort ; and secondly, 
they cannot usually obtain it if they would. Wolves 
always hover around their cities, and at night they are par- 
ticularly on the alert, for that is wolf time, and these little 
fellows could not venture abroad at that time in search of 
grass, without being instantly devoured. They know their 
enemies, and stay home and sleep at night. 

Where then do these little creatures, who are lumps 
of animated grease, get their oil from — since all is poverty 
and bleakness around them, so far as can be seen ? 

My reader has doubtless wondered where the Con- 
choites and Holy Angels get their fuel in this treeless 
region. So did I, and I wondered still more when I 
learned whence they get it. A deposit of excellent coal 
has been found a few miles north of the Fort, but it has 
not been utilized. Eiding over these vast prairies, thongh 
you will see no trees, yet you will often see a tender little 
switch of the mesquite, shooting a few feet above the 
ground. Now stop at one of these and strike at its root 
with a pick-axe ; you will expect nothing but tender, 
fibrous roots, but instead of these the pick comes in con- 
tact with a heav}^, solid body. Surprised, you remove the 
thin covering of earth, and you find a living log, as thick 
as a man's leg, extending you know not how far. Ex- 
ploring further around the same little shoot, you find 
many logs of the same size, and an infinite number of 
branches extending from them. Thus, each little twig 



TWO THOUSAND MILES I]S^ TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 271 

yields you from a quarter to a half cord of fuel- wood, not 
equalled for that purpose by any other Avood within my 
knowledge. Thus, these treeless plains are filled with 
fuel, almost equal in its supply to the heaviest forests. 
These shoots do not increase in size, but after attaining a 
certain dimension, too small to be dreaded by an urchin, 
they either stand at that, or die and give place to others. 
The branches of the large roots left in the ground, 
speedily supply the loss by other roots as large as those 
taken away. 

From these remarkable subterranean forests the Con- 
choites and Holy Angels obtain their supplies of fuel, and 
from the same I doubt not that the populous prairie dog 
derives his store of provisions. I have not explored one 
of his cities, but I dare say that he who does so, will find 
these subterranean forests in full vigor or partly destroyed. 
When they have been destroyed to such an extent that 
they will no longer keep him fat, he gathers his colony 
and departs for other fields — suffering heavy slaughter 
from wolves by the way. 

Who can explain these subterranean forests ? Some 
say it is because the sun shines so hot here that trees can- 
not grow under its rays, and that therefore they hide 
themselves from its rays and flourish under ground. This 
is not so, because the sun does not shine so fiercely here 
as in many other regions of the State where forests abound, 
and not nearly so hot as in the tropics where forest and 
jungle run riot. Others say that it is because it does not 
rain enough to support forests above ground ; hence they 
grow beneath ground, and live upon the moisture that the 
earth affords. This is not so, because trees drink and 
feed with their roots and discharge with their pores and 
leaves, and the moisture that would feed a great growth 
under ground, would equally feed it above ground. Others 
say it is because fires often sweep the prairies, compelling 



272 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

tlie vegetative force that would otherwise produce trees, 
to the production of enormous roots. But this is not so, 
because when the trunk is killed, usually the root dies 
also ; and there is no evidence that fires prevail here more 
than they have pi-evailed in other portions of Texas where 
trees are numerous. And, moreover, it is a fact that even 
in this ocean of prairie there are a few trees here and 
there, even of mesquite, in positions as much exposed to 
these fires as they would be on the site of the subterranean 
forests. 

I leave the explanation to the philosophers, and, in the 
meantime, can think of nothing better than this : When 
the Architect creates a peculiar condition of life, he creates 
a peculiar condition of circumstances favorable to that 
life ; and when the peculiar circumstances cease, the life 
peculiar to them ceases, and another takes its place, suita- 
ble to the changed order of things. This is true history, 
from the beginning of the world to the present, and doubt- 
less ever will be. Thus, the buffalo that once roamed over 
the American continent, has retired before the advancing 
forests, as the Indian has retired before advancing civili- 
zation. So I doubt not that in time the conditions of 
prairie-dog life will expire, and the forests that now grow 
under ground will grow upon it, admitting and creating 
cities of men in place of these cities of so-called dogs. 
This then, under its present condition, is prairie dog 
country, par excellence. It will hardly do to say that the 
Architect would not take the pains to create so grand a 
scope of country for such lowly conditions of life. The 
poor polyp, boneless, brainless, headless, motionless, once 
had all the world to himself. 

A Mixed and Happy Family. 

These prairie dogs have strange friends, who sit in the 
family circle and live with them in the closest friendship. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 273 

Let US attempt to enter one of their subterranean abodes. 
We knock at the door and are answered instantly by the 
deadly whirr of the rattlesnake, who like a brave and con- 
siderate fellow, warns us not to advance into this danger ; 
but assures us that if we persist, he will welcome us to a 
hospitable grave. He is the faithful and eternal sentinel 
that guards the door, and the little dogs must pass over 
or around him every time they leave or enter their abode. 
The hungry wolf knows that he is there, and could not be 
induced to thrust his nose into those premises. I have 
seen these deadly reptiles basking at full length near the 
doors, the little dogs scampering unharmed all about them. 
Possibly a small percentage of the baby dogs are given, a 
willing sacrifice, to these creatures, in consideration of the 
protection which they afford them against wolves and 
other enemies. In the evening or early morning, a dimin- 
utive owl may also be seen hopping through their cities, 
who, when disturbed, retreats into their houses. What 
part he fills in the social circle, I have not the least idea; 
but he is ever there. There also dwells with them a cu- 
rious little rabbit, with legs so short that any boy may 
beat him in a foot race. Knowing his weakness in point 
of legs, he never ventures more than a few yards from his 
particular domicil, and for this reason he is very hard to 
catch, keeping his ears always erect and shuffling away at 
the slightest noise. He is prettier than the Molly Cotton- 
tail, but not half so large. What his duty is in the house- 
hold, is also past finding out. 

Here then is a singular household— the most remarkable 
no doubt in the world. Imagine that it is ten o'clock at night, 
and that they are all going to bed. First, old father and 
mother prairie dog creep into it, and store themselves snugly 
away ; then the little ones pile themselves up around them. 
After a while father and mother rabbit enter the same bed, 
followed by a bevy of little ones ; and when all are sound 



274 TWO THOUSAKD MILES I>^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

asleep, old mother rattlesnake, with a swarm of little sons 
and daughters, crawls in and coils up around all the rest, 
thrusting her cold head under the warm furs of the dogs 
and rabbits ! Is it not a wonderful family ? In the mean- 
time, old father rattlesnake stands faithful sentinel at the 
door. As for the owls, allj except the little featherless 
babies, are out at night catching grasshoppers and lizards, 
and have a whole bed to themselves in day time, while the 
others are gathering food in the underground forests, or 
having filled themselves, are frolicking out of doors in the 
sunlight. ISTow, if my reader is a little boy or girl, would 
not he or she like to pile into that bed too ? It would 
doubtless be so warm and comfortable I 

These cities ai'e sometimes a day's ride from water, and 
as the household cannot live without it, there can be no 
doubt that the subterranean forests arc supplied with lakes 
and streams. Thus, how careful the Great Architect is of 
all his creatures ! Thus, I have said that I would conduct 
the reader into subterranean forests, populous with life and 
cool with brooks and pools, and I have done so. 

The Last of Them. \ 

About twelve miles from Fort Concho we ride through 
a herd of cattle, browsing in a green nook, protected from 
the moderate norther and misty rain. They are up to their 
bellies in grass, and as fat as prairie dogs. They are the 
advance skirmishers, and here is their last post. They 
raise their heads and look upon us with a mingled expres- 
sion of wonder and stupidity, as if they would say to us : 
" Poor things, are ye lost and gone ? " They are as gentle 
as milk-kine, and would scarcely move out of their tracks to 
let us pass. 

Startled. — The Beautiful Swak. 

Riding quietly along the banks of the blue Concho, ad- 
miring the lovely valleys, the smooth, green hills, and the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 275 

misty mountains in the background, we were suddenly 
startled, as if with a noise of a thousand horses plunging 
violently in the river. We thought of an army ol Comanches 
plunging across to charge us, and every man grasped his 
gun. It continued some moments, and presently a flock 
of glorious swans rose above the steep banks and flew up 
the river, sending forth a great "kwonk!" ^* kwonk ! " 
There were not less than fifty, and the noise that startled 
us was produced by striking the water with their wings in 
the effort to rise. In this manner they go several yards on 
the water before they clear it and mount into the air ; and 
the uproar is very great. 

Even the Texans do not know what their noble State 
contains. I read an article in the Texas Almanac by an 
intelligent gentleman who claims to know all about the 
birds of Texas, in which he says the swan is not found 
in the State except on the coast in winter. Yet here he 
is, in all his pride of beauty, far, far from the ocean. As 
we continued to ride along, we could scarcely look into the 
Concho without beholding the superb bird floating on its 
bosom, and their *^ kwonk ! " '^ kwonk ! " was continually 
in the air.* 

What a glorious bird is the swan ! White and chaste 
as the snow-drift — arched neck, resting partly upon the 
back, exposing the full, snowy bosom, — and bills, and 
large eyes of jet ! 

" Fair as the bosom of the swan— 
I've seen thy breast with pity heave ; 
• And therefore love I thee, sweet Genevieve ! " 

That bosom must indeed be fair, to rival the bosom 
of the swan ; for it is beauty's paragon : a rounded swell- 
ing out of perfect symmetry ; the emblem of heavenly 
health and virgin purity. When floating on the water, 

* The writer of this note has seen the swan in thousands on The Colorado, 
above the settlements ; which river flows by the door of tiie gentleman who wrote 
the article in the Texas Almanac. 



276 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON nOKSEBACK. 

nothing so graceful as the swan. It is the mnsic and the 
poetry of motion. It is said that Jupiter sought in vain, 
in his proper person as king of the gods, to win the love 
of Leda. He at last came in the guise of the swan, and 
she fell before a beauty that excelled her own. 

A Serene Picture. — The Days of Old. 

About noon we stood upon the brow of a precipice or 
parapet of stone that extended a great distance to the 
northwest, and below us lay one of those pleasing scenes 
peculiarly Texan. It was an immense vale of level beauty, 
deep green, whose western wall was beyond the vision, yet 
indicated by a low range of misty mountains. Herds of 
deer and antelopes were feeding on the rich pasture, and 
flocks of blue cranes stalked slowly over it, apparently cull- 
ing the tenderest morsels. One of these flocks was so large 
that it seemed a herd of sheep, but my glass soon resolved 
them into an army of stately birds. As I beheld all this 
and swept the field in every direction with my glass, I 
thought I had never witnessed so lovely a scene. And yet 
so still, so serene, it seemed asleep ! Descending into the 
vale, we found a beautiful creek sweeping along the base 
of the wall, over a bed of solid stone. In a depression 
some distance from the creek, I found a number of shells, 
such as still live in the waters of Texas. While viewing 
the vale from the cliff I said to myself : '^ This was a Lake 
of the Days of Old : " and these shells convinced me this 
was truth. When the vale is struck with the plow, these 
shells will be turned up everywhere.'' * 

This lake existed within the present geological day ; 
and if its waters were such as now flash in the beautiful 
Concho, what glorious expanse of liquid beauty it was ! 
And there' were none to love it ? There were flocks of 
swans, like white spirits of the blest, disporting upon its 

* Unios. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 277 

peaceful surface ; and how do we know but that the 
hierarchs who witnessed creation, lingered upon its banks 
and bathed in its pearly waters ? 

" Like Maia's son he stood and shook his plumes 
That heavenly fragrance filled the circuit wide." 

The Concho has cut its way through this lake-shore 
of stone near its eastern extremity, and the channel seems 
to show that it was first by slow erosion and lastly by vio- 
lent disruption, or a sudden giving away of the wall from 
the pressure of the water. There was no doubt a beautiful 
cascade here in the days of old, nearly as tall as Niagara, 
but far less mighty in volume.* The vale is all rich, 
very rich. 

Antelopes. 

We encamped in the lake bed, a dozen miles from the 
eastern shore, on the bank of the Concho, in a small 
thicket of mesquite brush, having made some thirty miles 
since morning. It was more than an hour before dark ; 
and after turning my horse on the luxuriant grass, I 
walked off alone toward a herd of antelopes that were 
feeding a half mile up the vale. As I approached them 
they showed disturbance by huddling together, and then 
bounded a hundred yards further away, when they stopped 
to gaze at me. I then stopped myself, and the pretty 
animals seemed to have their curiosity greatly excited; 
some of the boldest advancing a good way toward me, 
then stopping, occasionally bowing at me and pawing the 
ground. Observing the interest they were taking in me, 
I lifted the skirts of my coat over my head, and bending 
the body forward in a stooping way, began to advance 
upon them, now veering to the right, now to the left, like 

* There is the bed of a large ancient lake above the Marble Falls on the 
Colorado, which was drained off by the Colorado slowly cutting its way through 
a mountain of marble. This was also in the present Geological Day— shells of 
the Unto being very numerous in the ancient bed 



278 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 

one that is well drunken, — they all the time gazing at mo 
with great amazement, backing occasionally a little dis- 
tance further oil. Finally, when within a few hundred 
yards of them I stood still, and bowed at them repeatedly, 
which they seemed to regard as a very nnaccountable 
transaction — looking first at me and then at one another, 
and snuffing the air in the manner of a goat. I believe if 
I had remained in this position they would have burst 
with curiosity, or charged deliberately upon me, to solve 
the riddle of what I was; but observing that the sun was 
setting, I drew a bead with my rifle npon one of the 
boldest, and firing, it fell. It was a tender nanny, but 
full-grown, and in admirable order. I cut the ribs out of 
each flank and a foot of the spinal column from the rump, 
and while thus engaged, the others, which had retired but 
little distance, showed more sign of unsatisfied curiosity 
than ever. I think I might have destroyed half the flock 
before seriously alarming them or satisfyiug their curiosity. 
When I got back to camp, the two soldiers had a smart 
fire of mesquite brush, before which the game was roasted, 
dripping all the while with gravy. It was sweet, juicy, 
tender, excellent. It ate much like the best, juiciest mut- 
ton, improved by the addition of a game flavor. • 

While the meat and coffee were cooking I told my ad- 
venture to the soldiers, one of whom said : ^^ Of all fools 
in the world, antelopes is the biggest. If you try to creep 
on one, you can't get near enough to kill him with a rifle 
cannon. But just throw an old red blanket over your 
shoulder, and step right out on the prairie where they can 
see you, and they'll come running to you from every which 
way. You can shoot 'em down like dogs." 

These animals seem compounded of the deer, sheep and 
goat, with strong points of resemblance to each. They are 
larger than a deer and more heavily built, have the horns 
and head of a goat without his beard, and the general 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 279 

bodily appearance of a goat, though they carry their heads 
erect like a deer. They are all of a reddish color with a 
large white spot on each flank, white belly, and short, 
stumpy tail like a deer's. They run but indifferently well, 
and their gait is precisely that of a goat. The cow-boys on 
horseback often catch them with lariats, when they bawl 
very like a goat. They are easily tamed, but make too 
affectionate pets. They will stay continually about you, 
rubbing you with their heads, and are liable to butt you 
like a goat, out of pure friendship. They are peculiarly a 
prairie animal ; no man, I think, ever having seen one, 
in the wild state, in a forest, or even on the edge of one. 
Indeed, they seem to regard forests with singular aversion, 
as if they thought them the abode of the wicked. Hence, 
they are never seen except on the almost boundless plains, 
where they are numerous. Their coating is a mixture of 
that of the deer and sheep, with a peculiarity that is its 
own : long, coarse straight hairs, hollow like a goose-quill, 
which break to pieces with the sliglitest handling, as if 
rotten ; and under this comes a thin coating of fine wool. 
The long hairs, besides breaking to pieces so readily, very 
easily come out of the flesh, and one could hardly go 
through a forest or thicket without coming out well shorn. 
This may be a reason why he so hates the timber. Their 
flesh is much more like mutton than kid or venison. 

After supper we put the fire out, lest Indians might be 
attracted to waylay us in our sleep ; and though the night 
was raw and chilly, I slept well in my blanket in the tall 
grass in the brush. 



III. 



Souvenirs. — The Gorge of the Shadow of Death. 

AFTER a short ride, the Jake bed terminated against an 
abrupt elevation, running north and south. This was 
the western shore of the hike. Up this elevation we rode 
through a dark, natural pass, walled in by rock on either 
side, with numerous grizzly and cavernous recesses. This 
spot is known far and wide in Texas as Dead Man's Hol- 
low ; and from its looks alone, it surely deserves its dismal 
name. An unseen enemy could here glut his vengeance; 
and being attacked, there is little hope of escape. The 
whole place is suggestive of murder, and the wind as it 
sighs through the hollow or shrieks through the crevices, 
seems to say — *' Take care ! " The raven shakes his letif- 
erous plumes about you, and seems to look into your eyes 
and say — "Take care!" And there is no telling how 
many have gone to the last account from this spot. Fif- 
teen graves mark the wayside, all with crosses bearing 
the ominous word — "Unknown." These were all mur- 
dered where they lay, either by Indians or highwaymen. 
One of these murders was not long since. Two young men 
were travelling to Mexico with money to buy mares. When 
in this pass, while conversing probably about the graves 
by the roadside, one of them drew a pistol and shot the 
other dead, and taking all his money, hurried away, leav- 
ing his companion on the spot where he slew him. Some 
soldiers from Concho, going the same way, soon found the 
dead body, and recognizing in it one of two travellers who 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 281 

had stopped at the post the previous night, they pursued 
the murderer and captured him. He is now in the Texas 
penitentiary for life. Of the others, 1 learned no tra- 
dition. They are probably men whose disappearance will 
forever remain a mystery to their friends. Besides these, 
l)erhaps many more have been murdered on the same spot, 
whose bodies were concealed by the murderers or dragged 
away by wild beasts. It is impossible to pass over this 
grim spot without a shudder and a dread. The drivers of 
the El Paso mail-coaches approach it with terror, and enjoy 
a relief when they have cleared it. It is the Gorge of the 
Shadow of Death. 

Amazement. — The American Bison. 

Rising out of Dead Man's Hollow upon a lofty, rolling 
plain, locked in on the north and west by a beautiful chain 
of mountains, a scene of amazement was before us. As far 
as the eye could reach, almost every foot of ground was 
hidden by a black, moving mass, and a noise came up to 
us like the sound of millions of tramping feet. There was 
an odor of musk in the air. We stopped and gazed upon 
this scene of wonder. The edge of the great mass was not 
more than two hundred yards off, and it lay athwart our 
way. It is no exaggeration to say that twenty to thirty 
thousand buffaloes were before us. They seemed number 
without number. As we moved upon them those nearest 
us commenced moving to the north, pushing those before 
them, and suddenly the whole mass was in lively motion. 
The plain trembled beneath their feet and emitted a roar 
like continuous distant thunder. From the other side of 
the Concho and out of the valley they came surging, all 
moving to the north. Those coming out of the valley 
completely surrounded us, and for an hour we rode slowly 
in the midst of the herd, which separated and left only a 
little elliptical circle about us, often but a few vards in ex- 



282 TWO THOUSAiN^D MILES I:N TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

tent, so that we could have popped the great animals with 
a coach whip. I sometimes felt alarmed lest those pushing 
behind would force the front ones upon us. Our horses 
were at first greatly excited, but after a while stared upon 
the scene as if they enjoyed it. When the pressure was 
over I could restrain myself no more, but drawing my rifle, 
brought down six, in probably not so many minutes. The 
soldiers did not open fire, saying that one battery was 
enough to glut us with slaughter. And indeed, it was so. 
After the great army had passed to the north beyond 
the chain of mountains, and I beheld the noble animals 
stretched on the plain, the blood smoking from their nos- 
trils and cruel holes in their bodies, I felt remorse that I 
had been guilty of a wanton and unmanly wrong. Of 
tons of quivering flesh around us we took less than a hun- 
dred pounds, mostly from the rumps of a fat heifer, leaving 
the rest for the ravens and wild beasts. One spectacle, 
particularly, made me ashamed of my barbarity. I had 
severely hurt a noble fellow, who looked as if he mio-ht be 
a prince of the herd, and as he staggered with the wound, 
his companions nearest him gathered closely around him, 
as if to support his tottering body and help him out of the 
reach of danger. This scene was so affecting that I stood 
still to watch it, and could not be mistaken that it was a 
conscious act of the buffaloes, to help their stricken com- 
rade. They were ivilling themselves to undergo danger 
if they could help their friend.* 

It is no sport to hunt these animals, lordly in appear- 
ance and gigantic as they are, when encountered in these 
vast herds. It is nauseating slaughter, not a whit more 
inspiriting than to walk into a flock of unresisting seals on 
shore and crush their heads with clubs, or beating pigeons 
from their roosts with a pole. You can stand in your 

* Any one who has much bunted the bufEaloes has doubtless often witnessed 
similar scenes. 



TWO THOUSAi^D MILES II^^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 283 

tracks while the great herd is thundering by you, and shoot 
them down until the soul sickens at the work. All that 
you have to guard against is being tramped to death by the 
surging mass, against their will ; and there is little danger 
of this if you are mounted on a manageable horse, for they 
will always, if they can, divide and leave a vacant spot 
about you. Those who write of this animal often enter- 
tain us with fearful battles and hairbreadth escapes, but I 
believe that nearly all of this is fancy ; though I have no 
doubt that if an old bull should be wounded and left be- 
hind by his herd, he would turn upon his persecutor and 
give as good an account of himself as he could. I consider 
a herd of wild Texas beeves as infinitely more terrible. 

And yet what a formidable and ferocious aspect he 
bears ! There is not a more formidable looking creature in 
existence than an old buffalo bull. He seems a great mass 
of terror, always prepared for scenes of conflict and danger. 
His monstrous size, the great hump on his shoulder, his 
enormous head and neck enveloped in a dense mass of 
shaggy hair and beard, his eyes blazing amid a tangled mass 
of dark locks — all make him as grizzly and ferocious to the 
eye as it is possible to conceive. A flock of rampant lions 
would certainly look puny by the side of these monstrous 
beasts. And yet, he is so harmless and inoffensive ! A 
mere boo-hoo or a clap of the hands will divest him of all 
his terror. He is the true Quaker gun of nature, whose 
grizzly aspect should excite more our pity than our fear. 

There is another point in which I suspect buffalo ap- 
pearances to be deceptive. I do not believe him to be 
nearly so prodigious as he appears. His long, shaggy hair 
makes him seem much bigger than he really is ; just as I 
have seen a lady's lap-dog that looked portly, dwindle to a 
mere rat in size on being shorn. So, if the buffalo were 
shorn of his profusion of locks, on his head, neck, shoul- 
ders and bellv, he would certainly be greatly reduced. I 



284 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 

doubt much if any buffalo will turn fifteen hundred pounds 
of true carcass, or yield as much flesh as hundreds of cattle 
slaughtered in our abattoirs every day. In color they are 
tawny like the lion, and there is a lighter and a darker 
shade observed among them. Their tails are like a lion's, 
with a black tuft at the end ; their eyes a brilliant, melt- 
ing black ; their horns black, stout, keen at the point, 
enormously wide apart and almost straight. In regard to 
its flesh as a food, there cannot be two opinions. It is 
as juicy and tender as stall-fed beef, and it is better, 
in that it has no flavor of the stall. The flavor of game is 
about it, and of all game animals, perhaps it is the best. 
It is astonishing what quantities one can consume of it, 
without feeling oppressed by the load. For some time I 
ate five or six pounds a day, not only without inconveni- 
ence, but felt all the better for it, and had no suspicion 
that I was a glutton ; and this when it Avas cooked in the 
most crude manner, on a stick before the fire, with no con- 
diments but a little salt. One of my soldier companions 
thought he had eaten ten pounds at one meal. I cannot 
imagine a more savory dish than a choice piece of buffalo 
meat prepared by a skilful cook. But this applies only to 
a well chosen animal. The old bulls are unfit to be eaten, 
tasting gummy, coarse and saliferous, and leave an unpleas- 
ant odor of urine in the mouth. This is especially the case 
at certain seasons, when they are chiefly engaged in bellow- 
ing on the plains and pawing with their feet. One of my 
soldiers said that while out with a hungry scout, they en- 
countered and killed a solitary old bull in a lonesome valley. 
They ate him heartily, in spite of his disagreeable flavor ; 
" but," added he, "^my mouth tasted and my whole body 
smelt like a peach-orchard boor for a week." This is like 
the condition of Caliban, who after having been wallowed 
in a stable, protested : " I do smell all horse, at which my 
nose is in great indignation." 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 285 

They devote the months of August and September to 
multiplication ; and then these vast plains roar night and 
day with the thunder of the bulls, who engage in terrible 
battles with each other. At such seasons the old bulls, 
no longer able to bear a good front in such encounters, 
retire by themselves in secluded valleys and gorges, — lis- 
tening no doubt with melancholy interest to the bellowing 
of their more lusty brethren, as superannuated veterans on 
the retired list may hear the roar of battle afar off. Their 
young are brought forth in April or May, usually a male 
and female at a birth. When captured young they are 
very readily tamed. A friend of mine reared a heifer and 
a bull, captured when suckling calves. They became so 
fond of him and his family that they could hardly be kept 
out of the house, and followed his people about like dogs. 
AVhen they grew older they contracted the habit of knock- 
ing down his fences, invading his gardens and fields ; and 
not being able to restrain them, he concluded that their 
beef was better than their company, and slew them. He 
and his neighbors declared that they had never eaten such 
excellent meat. I have never known the buffalo to pro- 
duce hybrids with the domestic cattle ; but I have little 
doubt that it is practicable, and that such a cross would 
work an admirable improvement of our beef stock.* 

A Glance into the Past and Future. 

As this vast army went thundering to the north, dis- 
appearing behind the blue chain of mountains, I looked 
upon them with a sad interest. I thought of what they 
have been and what they soon will be, and beheld in them 

* Since the trip of our traveller, the buffalo has covered the plains of North- 
west Texas in such herds as have not been known before, at least bj' the wliite 
man. They broke into the Post gardens at FortMcKavett. the officers shooting 
them from the windows of their quarters. During the winter of 1876-'7, hun- 
dreds of thousands were slaughtered for their hides and tongues alone, and 
many from wantonness. 



286 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

a great race rapidly marching away into the shadowy 
depths, out of sight and out of memory of the living. 
And alonsr with them marches another race, whose destiny 
is bound up with theirs. Time was wlien the buffalo 
ranged over the American continent, from the Atlantic 
to the Rocky Mountains : he is now confined to a territory 
that is daily contracting its boundaries. His enemies are 
increasing upon him on every hand, and a hundred years 
hence I doubt if there will be a single specimen of his race 
on the continent. Within a short period, those who come 
after us will look upon his bleaching bones with as much 
curiosity as we now look upon the fossil relics of the 
mastodon and mammoth. And it is not the advancing 
white man alone that is hedging him around with destruc- 
tion. Nature has placed the seal of doom upon his brow, 
and moves to his destruction with as certain tread as the 
white man, if not so rapidly. The buffalo, like the ante- 
lope and the prairie dog, is the son of the prairie : the 
broad, sunny plains are his beneficent mother : the shaded 
forests are not his, and he loves them not. Condemned 
to them, he would soon die of melancholy, if not of starva- 
tion : as the albatross would soon die if transported whither 
he could not hear the multitudinous voice of the sea and 
ride on its foamy billows. In time the American conti- 
nent has all been a great prairie ; and as the forests ad- 
vanced, the buffalo retired before their gloomy grandeur. 
Tlie forests are still advancing, slowly and steadily, 
step by step, to the grand music of the centuries, and will 
at last push their great columns to the shores of the 
Pacific. In this condition of things, the buffalo would not 
live if he could. Life would be a burden to him without 
his boundless prairies, and death a welcome relief to his 
sickened heart and wearied bones. When Nature has set 
its seal of doom upon a race, death becomes to it an asj^ira- 
tion, and the paths that lead to extinction are easy and 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 287 

desirable. It is euthanasia. Thus Nature executes the 
sentences of her law in love. 

As I beheld the last black line of the great thundering 
mass sink behind the mountains, I thought it might be the 
last I should ever see of this departing race, and I spoke 
an involuntary farewell — 

"Vale, vale, longum vale !" 

Nature's volume in which their , history is written is 
nearly closed, and a ncAV Epoch dawns over their land from 
the east, bringing a total change of scenes and conditions. 

The Mourner by the Hearse. 

I have said that the Indian is following this funeral 
march into the Shadowy Depths. He lingers but a little 
behind, and is drawn irresistibly onward. It is the fascina- 
tion of impending doom leading him down great declivities 
*' to shores where all is dumb ; " a fascination that he can- 
not resist if he would. The Indian cannot live without 
the buffalo, any more than he can without the sun. From 
him he procures his food, his raiment, the material with 
which he covers his cabin, the shield that protects him 
from the arrow of his enemy, and often even the fuel with 
which he warms himself and cooks his food. Take the 
buffalo away from him, and you take his all, making him a 
miserable outcast, shivering and starving. It will force a 
total change in his conditions of life, which would of itself 
speedily work his extinction. When the last buffalo is 
gone, there will be nothing left of the North American 
Indian, save a few dejected hangers-on about the out- 
skirts of civilization ; listless, and silently awaiting the 
impending doom which they know is above them, casting 
its shadow into their hearts. Like the last of the buffaloes, 
death will be to them a poetry and iispiration, and a sweet 



288 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 

boon : because they are walking the paths that Nature has 
made to lead them to the shore. 

Does not every Indian know of this impending doom, 
and feel the shadow upon his heart ? It may be that all 
do not comprehend it, but I believe there are none who 
do not feel that there is a shadow upon them which no 
sunlight can dispel. There is a strange funeral dirge 
whose notes continually^ break upon his ears during the 
day and startle his slumbers at night ; a sweet note of 
melody from the eternal spheres, as sweet as it is melan- 
choly. They may not all know that this is the Syren, 
Fate ; but many of them do. 

I believe I never saw an Indian even of the least exalted 
tribe, in whose countenance I could not detect a trace of 
melancholy ; and in many this spirit was conspicuously 
present. In my youth I knew the noble old Placido, chief 
of the Tonkaways. This man possessed a grand soul and 
a great heart, and of him nature had written in every 
lineament: "This is a man?" There was a sweet, sad 
gentleness about this old warrior, which could not fail to 
attract many observers. He seemed a prophet contempla- 
ting the future while he spake of the indifferent things 
around him ; and it was the future that threw the strange, 
sweet shadows about him. It was the shadow of the doom 
of him and his race reaching down into his heart, and the 
old man knew it. He knew that the Great Spirit had 
called for His red children, and that they must depart 
from the earth, and sink into the great Ocean of Forget- 
fulness, leaving not even a waif on the surface to float to 
the shore and teli that the Tonkaway had lived. He saw 
his own tribe passing away until scarcely a hundred were 
left of the thousands he had led. When Capt. Jack was 
informed that he must die, he heard it unmoved, and said : 
"My Indian heart is dead, and I do not mind to die." 
Those five words — "My Indian heart is dead" — tell the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES lif TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 289 

whole story. The shadow of the doom of his race had 
chilled the vital power, and made death a dream and 
aspiration. 

Per Coi^TRA. 

How different the conquering race, before whom the 
Indian and buffalo are dwindling away, and to whose con- 
quests even Nature lends her auxiliary hands ! No shadow 
of doom upon that brow, no subsidence of the vital power 
there ! Fortitude and daring burst up within that heart, 
like the strong waters of a big fountain, and Nature spurs 
it with the ambition of a higher destiny. The volume of 
its history is but just opened, and perhaps its greatest 
achievements yet await it. May not even I, in this vast 
wilderness, the home of the buffalo and Indian, with but 
two by my side, be an unconscious prospecting courier of 
the great conquering hosts that linger a little behind — sent 
forward to blaze the way ? 
13 



IV. 



A Speculation in" which there is Mo:n"et. 

"T'T'jrE rode over a prairie three miles in width and an 
VV uncertain number in length, composed of white, 
sharp sand, with a thin coating of wiry grass. It is a sin- 
gular geological phenomenon, and the first sand-prairie I 
have seen in Texas. The stampeding buffaloes had much 
torn it up, and our horses sank to the fetlock. "Now," 
said Jones Johns, " if I only had this sand-prairie near 
San Antonio, I would quit soldiering and grow rich — sell- 
ing sand to the plasterers and for the streets and yards. 
The San Antonians go twelve miles to get their sand, and 
pay a big price for it at that. Ugh ! it just makes my 
mouth water to look at this sand. If I could only move 
this prairie to San Antonio ! " I suggested to him that 
perhaps he would do better by buying the prairie and let- 
ting it stay where it is; "for," said I, "by moving the 
prairie to San Antonio all at once, there would be a glut 
in the market and sand would fall. This is probably the 
only sand for miles and miles ; and this region must soon 
fill with people who will want sand for their mortar. This 
prairie will then become a mine of gold to the owner, 
who will have naught to do but sit on the road-side and 
sell sand. Railroads will be built, and he can then open 
a sand-store in San Antonio, becoming a great merchant. 
It is one of the greatest opportunities of the age." He 
looked eagerly at the sand, and said : "It is so ! If E 
survive this 'venter, I intend to buy this tract. I'll 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 291 

get a land-warrant at two-bits an acre and locate it 
here." 

" Don't be in a burry ! " 

'*No — don't break your neck," said John Powell; 
" for if a million of men were to come here to buy land, 
they'd every one cuss this spot. They wouldn't have it as 
a gracious gift." 

^'That is so," said Jones Johns. "Men's foresiglit 
ain't as good as their hind-sight. But I'm going to save 
up my money, and right here will I stretch my tent." 

This sand is clean quartz grit, and its presence here is 
phenomenal. 

Concho Springs. — Et Tu Brute ! 

Arrived at Concho Springs, the apparent head of the 
Concho, sixty miles from Concho Post. It is one of the 
loneliest looking spots on earth — a depression in a bound- 
less plain, into which numerous ravines debouch. Chains 
of low mountains west and north shut out the incognita 
beyond. It is more silent than the Arctic regions beyond 
the Esquimaux line, where the beating of the heart in the 
bosom is all that is heard ; that is to say, that it would be 
if it were not for the ominous raven that shrieks above us 
and disturbs the air with his funereal wings. We dis- 
mount and picket our horses on the grass in silence, look- 
ing curiously around and feeling instinctively that we 
should not separate too far apart. The Concho, which 
had been rapidly dwindling, is here a mere brook, rising 
out of the earth in two or three bubbling fountains. As 
we leaned over the fountain to fill our cups, we beheld a 
number of moccasin tracks recently made. We looked at 
them and then looked at one another. Presently Jones 
Johns picked up an arrow, with a keen, barbed point of 
steel, that had evidently just dropped from a hostile 
quiver. We examined it with a grim smile, knowing that 



292 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES 11^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

it was of no use to turn pale. Johns broke the silence : 
•^'I smell something like ajoole-cat. That's the way Injuns 
smells. I tell you they are clost about." We discussed 
what we should do, and concluded we were as safe here as 
anywhere within sixty miles, and therefore would rest in 
peace and calmly take whatever fortune might send us^ 
feeling that if we should fall, being innocent, we would 
alight on a silken couch. AVe reclined on the grass and 
ate our mid-day meal, our guns by our sides and our eyes 
on the watch. 

Retrospection. — Artesian Wells. 

This whole Concho country at no remote day will sup- 
port a great population. It is a country yet unfinished, on 
which the hands of the Architect are still engaged in bring- 
ing it to the perfection he intends for it. It is embryonic ; 
and yet, in its incomplete condition, it is a grand country. 
What will it not be, when creative energy has put on the 
last stroke ! Besides its delicious climate and thick car- 
peting of all the richest grasses of Texas, it is so nearly all 
fertile that poor spots are rare ; and this not only of the 
valleys, but of the rolling highlands and lofty table lands. 
The soil has been derived from calcareous, gypseous and 
magnesian rocks, and so loamy is it that it would be a 
work of love to the plow to slip through it. There is 
probably no region on earth where the small grains would 
yield larger crops or of better quality. Wheat would here 
revel to its most splendid development. 

This region wants trees for the unshaded plains, more 
running streams, and more rain. These will come in time 
from bountiful nature ; but in order that this noble region 
may not so long be unpossessed and unenjoyed, man should 
encourage and assist nature. As for the valleys, the work 
is easy to give them abundant vegetation and moisture to 
sustain it ; but there are wide spaces so destitute of water 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 293 

that a bird would hardly dare fly over them without taking 
his canteen. The rain-fall on these arid scopes is barely 
sufficient to support the hardy grasses ; indeed, sometimes 
they almost perish from thirst. Until the forests have 
advanced, bringing with them rains and springs, and new 
creeks and rivers, the Artesian well must be resorted to, to 
make these extensive areas useful even to the herdsman ; and 
these can be secured only by the aid of the State. Artesian 
wells would here work wonders greater than Aladdin's 
lamp. The forests would hasten their advancing steps, the 
rains would descend, and the vast and lonely wilderness 
would become almost at once a region of boundless wealth 
and unequalled beauty and pleasure. This is the work of 
the statesman, and that Governor of Texas who shall ac- 
complish it, will build for himself a '' monument m^ore 
lasting than brass and taller than the regal heights of the 
Pyramids." He will in fact enlarge Texas by creating and 
adding to it another empire. 

Jefferson Davis, while United States Secretary of War, 
conceived this grand idea, worthy of a statesman, and dis- 
patched Captain John Pope, of the army, to show its prac- 
ticability. That officer accomplished nothing, boring a 
few shallow holes here and there, and Davis' term as Sec- 
retary expiring too soon, the experiment was never renewed 
— Pope's failure causing many to think that Artesian wells 
cannot be obtained in this country. Nothing could be 
more absurd. There are myriads of fountains and rivers 
in the dark recesses of the earth, and it is quite impossible 
to sink a shaft that will not reach some of these. The 
only conditions of success are that the bore shall be deep 
enough, and that the strata shall rise at some point, not 
too remote, above the surface of the bore. The strata in 
all this region lie precisely in a position most favorable to 
these wells, and are not broken up or intercepted. They 
rise step by step toward the northwest, forming an im- 



294 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

mense inclined plane, till at last, within less than one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, they are two thousand feet or more 
above the lower edge of the plane. If vigorous subter- 
ranean currents do not sweep down this plane, it would be 
without precedent and an anomaly in nature. I dare say 
that a shaft sunk a thousand to two thousand feet at any 
point of it in Texas, except probably its extreme northern 
edge, would be followed by a great outburst of water. The 
fact that all the great rivers of Texas have their sources 
either on, or at the foot of this plane, leaves no doubt of this. 
It is a work which will be demonstrated and accomplished. 

In Darkness. 

Two hours at Concho Springs, during which our horses 
stuffed themselves greatly, as if providing against an im- 
pending famine, did not lose us our scalps, and we rode 
west with whole skins. Ascending out of the depression 
we rode on a plain that seemed interminable, level as a 
carpet, and covered with luxuriant grass, on which the set- 
ting sun poured a golden flood. Hundreds of antelopes 
fed on the expanse, or stopped to gaze at us. It was a 
sudden elevation of the whole territory a hundred feet 
above the spot Ave had just left. 

Night came upon us, and it seemed the most uncon- 
fined, limitless night I ever belield. It did not seem to 
come from above ; for the stars shone with wonderful 
brilliance through the rarefied air ; but rather that we 
rode on a promontory, with an ocean of darkness below us, 
from which it puffed up and covered the spaces about us. 
So real did this spectral ocean appear that I seemed to 
hear at intervals the roar of the billows pushing one an- 
other and bursting against rocks below us. Such is the 
singular effect of witnessing night fall on one of these 
promontories of the globe. And it was not all phantas- 
magoria ; for the darkness did literally move up from the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 295 

subjacent lowlands, which are first submerged in light. 
It was not all stillness. Numberless birds of night whisked 
through the air, some of them making a pleasing melody 
as they vaulted into the heavens. Suddenly we were 
startled by a sound like that of a brigade of cavalry charg- 
ing furiously over the plain. Our horses arched their necks, 
pricked their ears, and almost danced with excitement. 

" Injuns ! " said John Powell. 

"Injuns !" said Jones Johns. 

"Buffaloes !" said I, in a suppressed voice. 

We stopped and tried to look into the darkness ; but, 
though the point whence the sound came seemed at first 
to be but a little distance off, we could see nothing. We 
grasped our rifles tighter. It gradually died away, and 
then ceased altogether. 

" If them's Injuns they've taken a tremendous stam- 
pede," said Jones Johns. " Guess they think the Tenth 
Cavalry is at their heels." 

At that moment we heard the distinct neigh of a horse, 
answered immediately by many others from different direc- 
tions. 

" What do you make of that now ?" said John Powell, 
with manifest uneasiness. 

" If them's Injuus there's a caution of 'em," said Jones 
Johns. 

The neighing soon ceased, and all was silent again, save 
the flight and melody of night birds. 

We rode onward cautiously, our horses stepping spirit- 
edly and gaily, as if they wanted to show themselves. 
Presently we rode upon a pool of water, reflecting the 
stars in its bosom. When our horses put their heads down 
to drink, they smelt around and snorted before tasting the 
water. 

"These horses feels suspicious," said John Powell; 
" they know something's up. They smell Injuns." 



296 TWO TH0USA1!^D MILES IK TEXAS Olf HORSEBACK. 

I dismounted and filled all our canteens from the clear 
pool. "Boys, shall we camp ?" 

'^Not here, by no means," was the response of the 
soldiers. "If them's Injuns they'll come here sure, to 
get water. Let's move on. " 

As I did not wish to leave this water until morning, we 
rode two miles south, and coming to a small clump of mes- 
quite brush, dismounted and took up our abode for the 
night. Our horses were both picketed and hobbled, so 
that in case of an attempt to stampede them, it could not 
prove a success. The grass was knee-deep, and a grateful 
couch it made to our weary limbs. We had travelled over 
forty-four miles during the day. We kindled no light, but 
wrapping ourselves up in blankets, profound peace soon 
reigned in camp. 

Voices of the I^ight. 

Before falling asleep I amused myself some time by 
taking note of the voices that broke the stillness of night. 
At intervals I heard distinctly what seemed the sound of 
a waterfall at great distance, or water rushing suddenly 
over a rocky channel — heard but a moment and then all 
was still. This waterfall may have been fifty miles away, 
but a breeze passing by, caught up the sound and bore it 
to my ears in the still night. I listened to these sounds 
with interest, to catch every note ; for when a boy, I was 
startled once by a precisely similar sound, which I have 
thought of a thousand times. As in this case, the sound 
seemed to come from the skies, was heard distinctly a sec- 
ond, and then ceased. As I knew there was no waterfall 
in that region, I thought in my boyish fancy I had heard 
one of the crystal fountains of Paradise, and for fear I 
would not be believed, never told it. I was alone in a 
wide campus, in the early part of a clear morning. What 



TWO THOUSAN-D MILES IIS" TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 297 

singular acoustic phenomenon is it that brings to ns these 
distant sounds ? 

Occasionally some heavy bird of night hovered closely 
over us, his feathers cutting the wind with a peculiar 
noise. Some of these were so large that I judged them 
to be eagles, attracted by the bulfalo meat we had with us. 
Then there was the snipe, or lark, or whatever it might 
be, springing into the air and singing as he soared. His 
music was a most sweet melody that gradually lost itself 
in the skies, like the song of ^^an unbodied joy whose 
race is just begun." 

The lonesome cry of the big wolf mingled with these 
sweet sounds, and broke over the plains like the wail of a 
lost soul on the banks of the Styx. Sometimes the cry of 
a dozen of these rose into the air from as many different 
directions at once. At last I fell asleep to the music of 
sweet larks and prowling wolves. 
13* 



V. 



EvoE ! — The Charge ! 

IT was grey of dawn when a loud snort from our horses 
awakened me. The two soldiers bestirred themselves 
at the same moment, and we all grasped our artillery. As 
I did so I beheld two large wolves sitting side by side, not 
more than thirty yards off, — looking straight at us. I was 
about to pull trigger, when the soldiers asked me to desist, 
saying that our horses, which now snorted again very vig- 
orously, were not disturbed by the wolves, but evidently 
by something else. I assented, and paid no further atten- 
tion to the wolves. At the same moment we heard the 
neighing of a number of horses. * 

*^ There now !" said John Powell ; '^didn't I tell you 
so ? The Injuns are upon us, certain." 

Stepping to the edge of the brush, we saw a brigade of 
horses approaching us. " It is so !" said I. '' It is so ! " 
repeated the soldiers ; and we put our thumbs to tlie ham- 
mers of the guns. The brigade was not more than three 
hundred yards from us, and steadily advancing. In a 
moment we observed that the horses were riderless, and 
there was a feeling of relief and a decided sensation when 
we exclaimed — '' Wild horses ! Mustangs ! " 

Our horses were becoming more and more excited as 
the gay cavalcade drew nearer, but knowing they were safe 
from stampede, we fell back into the brush to conceal our- 
selves, so that the mustangs might come upon us. The 
p5int was an excellent one, both for concealment and ob- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS Oiq" HORSEBACK. 5^99 

servation. It was on a knoll, or slight elevation of the sur- 
face, and the brush and tall grass were so thick that not 
even the keen eye of these sons of the prairie could detect 
us, until almost immediately on us. 

On they came, and it was a beautiful sight to behold. 
They had seen our horses, and were coming directly upon 
them. When about a hundred yards off, they stopj^ed with 
one accord, as if suspicious of a lurking enemy ; their 
heads lifted up and looking toward us. Presently a squad- 
ron of the boldest pranced out before the others, and after 
a few curvettings marched deliberately, with arched necks, 
to our hobbled steeds. These were the most beautiful ani- 
mals I ever beheld. Some of them were pure milk white, 
without a spot or stain ; their long, flowing tails, thick 
mane, pendent forelocks and feet, of jetty blackness. Bless 
my soul ! thought I ; suppose I had a couple of yon fellows 
to draw my buggy through the streets of Houston — would 
I not cut a swell ? Others were as black as ravens and 
almost as lustrous as a mirror in the sunshine ; others were 
bay, others chestnut, others sorrel, others cream, and others 
spotted with red and white or black. These advance fel- 
lows were all stallions. They came right np to our horses 
and bit at and squealed at them. The others, taking cour- 
age, galloped bravely up, so that in a moment our three 
horses were surrounded and hidden out of sight by the gay 
throng. It was the most magnificent cahallado lever saw ; 
not a poor or shabby one among them ; all fat and sleek as 
moles — looking as if they had just been carefully rubbed 
by the most skillful hostlers. It was a sight worth a trip 
to see. 

" Look here ; I'm afraid they'll kick our horses to 
death," said John Powell. *^ I think we'd better get out 
o' here." 

In that opinion I agreed ; and all of us stepping out on 
the plain, not forty yards from them, it was as if a thou- 



300 TWO THOUSAi^D MILES 11^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

sand fearfnl apparitions had fallen suddenly among them. 
They bounded away, their heads and tails lifted liigh in 
the air, dashing furiously off, as fast as their gay legs could 
carry them ; and they continued to go in this way till they 
sank out of sight and out of hearing. Our horses made a 
foolish effort to follow them, and when we went up to 
pacify them, they did not wish us to come near them, but 
turned their heels to us and squealed. Their eyes blazed 
with excitement, and they behaved for all the world as if 
they thought that they were wild horses too. I could but 
laugh at the ridiculous put-on of the poor beasts of bur- 
den ; but it was, after all, nature boiling up within them. 
If they had not been hobbled with good rawhide thongs, 
we would have been set afoot ; for nothing could have re- 
sisted their headstrong fury to run wild too, to live with 
their beautiful free brethren of the plains. I certainly 
could not blame them ; for should I discover on this trip a 
race of wild ladies as surpassingly beautiful over their tame 
sisters as these wild steeds are over the tame ones, I should 
undoubtedly run wild too, and take up my abode with the 
wild ladies. Eailroads and cities and foundries and the 
haunts of civilization would know me no more. My life 
would thenceforth be the color and the fragrance of the 
rose. 

We brought our horses to their senses by a strong pull 
of the stake-rope ; and yet after we mounted them, it was 
amusing to see how they behaved. They arched their 
necks, shook their heads, lifted their heels extraordinarily 
high, and emitted snort after snort. 

These horses are not as large as the domestic horse, but 
are more compactly put up, and seem to be stronger in 
proportion to size. There is nothing lean or lank about 
them, but all is closely knit and well-rounded symmetry. 
The true Morgan stallion seems to come about as near their 
size and appearance as any breed of horses I can think of. 



TWO THOUSAN-D MILES IN TEXAS OIH HORSEBACK. 301 

They are the true equine Achilleses— so beautiful, strong 
and agile. They are larger than the Mexican horses, 
commonly called mustangs in Texas, and infinitely better 
looking. The latter are generally coarse and shaggy, but 
the true mustangs are the belles and beaux of their race. 
The dark shades prevail among them, but nearly all other 
colors and shades are well represented. In the early days 
of Texas, when these wild horses were common on all the 
great prairies, the settlers made it a business to hunt them, 
catching them with the lasso ; and there are not a few old 
Texans who obtained their start in horse-stock from this 
source. They are said to be easily tamed, even when 
caught full grown, and make superior saddle-horses, 

« 

When-ce Came He ? 

All who have written of this prairie-horse, state that 
he has descended from the stray or lost horses of the first 
Spanish settlers or explorers. I do not accept this theory. 
I believe that he is an American production, as much so as 
Powhatan or Montezuma, and roamed over these prairies 
as freely when Columbus discovered America as he does 
to-day. That he receives accessions from the domestic 
horse is certain ; for I saw one large individual in this 
herd, very unlike the rest, who had distinct saddle-marks 
on his back and flanks; but these are waifs who have 
contributed very little to the common stock— not even 
enough to impress upon it a variety of form and size. I 
look upon him as the native son of the prairie, like the 
antelope and buffalo, and like these he will cease to exist 
when the prairies have been occupied by the forest. The 
fact that the horse Avas unknown to the Indian on the 
coast and to the Mexican, when the new country was dis- 
covered, does not prove that the horse did not exist within 
it. It proves only that he did not exist in those regions 
where there were few or no prairies ; and such was the 



302 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS Oif HOESEBAGK. 

territory where the first European adventurers touched. 
The Indians of those days were not accustomed to long 
journeys;* they were circumscribed within narrow limits 
by hostile tribes, who scrupulously maintained the doctrine 
of non-intercourse ; and they were not apt to learn that 
horses existed on the boundless prairies of the west, or that 
their red brethren ever rode on their backs. Some will 
say that if it is true that he is a native son of the prairie, 
he should have been found by those who first visited the 
northwest, where great prairies abound. The fact that 
the horse in the wild state is necessarily a sub-tropical 
animal, will answer this objection. He could not exist in 
a region subject to intense cold and deep snows ; and even 
if he would visit the nortbein prairies in summer, his way 
to them was barred by wide belts of forest, which, like the 
buffalo and antelope, he abhors. I dare say when La Salle 
visited the Texas coast he saw wild horses in abundance, 
if he pushed far into the prairie region, f AVhen the first 
Americans came to Texas, they found some of the Indians 
rich in herds of horses, and they brought on severe troubles 
with them by raiding upon them, to steal their horses — a 
game Avhich the Indians have been constantly playing upon 
the whites ever since. 

If these wild horses are the descendants of domestic 
horses that strayed from the early settlers, why were none 
found on the prairies of Florida and Louisiana, which 
were, and are yet, ample for the support of large herds ? 
If the theory is correct, we must suppose that the settlers 
of those States were much more careful of their horses tlian 
those who first came to Texas and Mexico ; or that their 
horses were much less inclined to run away. 

* Neither are they now. 

t This surmise is correct. La Salle found the Indians on the Neches well 
supplied with horses. They received him kindly and generously gave him horses 
to mount his company of twenty men, who were trying to find their way on foot 
from the coast of Texas to the French missionary posts in the north. 



TWO THOUSAIJ-D MILES Ilf TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 303 

The horse in a diminutive form, is found fossil all over 
Texas, in the later Tertiary deposits and alluvial soil. 
His fossil bones of larger size are also found in Kentucky, 
and even as far north as Minnesota in the same deposits. 
It is certain then that he existed in this country long be- 
fore the days of Columbus, or even Adam. Having been 
here then, why should he not be here now ? There is no 
evidence in geology that he became extinct, but rather that 
he continued to improve in form and size, and retired west- 
ward and southward only before the advancing forests, and 
the increased rigor of the climate which took place about 
the time of man's advent in the world. The bos also ex- 
isted in those remote days, and we have his descendants 
in the buffalo ; which, for all that we know,, was as much 
unknown to the Indians east of the Mississippi, as the 
horse. If the bos could survive, why not the equus ? 

Dew-Deops. 

As we rode back to the pool at which we watered last 
night, the prairie was radiant with myriads of little suns. 
Globules of bright water sat upon every blade of grass, and 
from ail of these miniature suns, flashed and shot their rays 
into our faces — the reflection in the dew-drops of the great 
orb tliat had just risen. The grass was as wet as if a heavy 
cloud had settled upon it and parted with all its moisture. 
Thus, in mid-winter as well as summer, the dews come 
nightly upon this lofty plain, and the heaviest I ever saw. 
In other regions the dews affect the lowlands, and come 
only in the warmer seasons ; but here they come alike to 
the lofty table-land and the valley, and at all seasons. Is 
not this design in Him Who Eules ? Without these extra- 
ordinary dews, where would be this luxuriant verdancy and 
the fertility of these plains ? What is now one of the most 
beautiful parts of creation, would be a barren desolation — 



304 TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

the sport alternately of hot whirlwinds and frozen tempe'sts, 
shunned as a region of death by all living things. 

The Hand of Providence. — The Volcanic Foun- 
tains. 

Arriving at the pool, instead of one, we found a dozen 
or more. These are the Mustang Water Holes, as written 
in the maps. They are circular, as much so as a well, and 
apparently not less profound ; the water cool and pure. 
Some of them are three hundred feet in diameter, and none 
less than a hundred. They are separated a few feet apart, 
and each rises a few inches above its nearest neighbor to 
the east, so that in case of overflow, the water of the most 
remote would flow through all. They have no current 
flowing into them, and none flowing out, that is percepti- 
ble. They are situated in a level plain ; but two parallel 
ridges of low rounded mountains, forming a beautiful valley 
between, extend nearly down to them from the west, and 
a very slight depression leads away toward the head of the 
Concho. These fountains, pools, or cisterns, or whatever 
else they may be called, are said never to diminish their 
pure sparkling water, but it remains at the same level, 
quite up to the top, even during the severest droughts. 

Whence came they, and what are they ? I can account 
for them on no other ground than that they are the rem- 
nants of a deep volcanic fissure, and that their waters issue 
from profound depths. Such phenomenal pools or cisterns 
are not uncommon on these streamless plains. One who 
has seen nearly all of this vast region told me that often, 
when he believed he should perish for water, he had sud- 
denly come upon them — many of them as round as a well 
and but little bigger, and so deep that he could find no 
bottom with his stake-rope. Some of these, said he, looked 
precisely as if they had been wrought by human hands, 
the water standing nearly level with the top, and always 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IIT TEXAS 01s HORSEBACK. 305 

sweet and pure even when in the midst of salty and gyp- 
seous regions.. Why are not such as these found in regions 
tilled with springs and traversed by streams ? Because 
they would answer no purpose', and supply no necessity. 
Without them even the buffalo, the antelope and the wild 
horse could barely venture upon the borders of this great 
unfinished country, and the dews would be distilled to nur- 
ture the luxuriant crops of grass, in vain. The roads that 
penetrate it bend hither and thither to reach them like a 
ship beating against a contrary wind, and without them, 
the populous part of Texas would be separated from north- 
ern Mexico and the Pacific, almost as effectually as if an 
ocean of fire rolled between them. They were necessary, 
and therefore they were ordered, and the volcanic forces 
were despatched to form them. 

The Sektii?"els axd Prophets. 

A little distance from these remarkable fountains, 
three sentinels stand side by side, alone in the vast ex- 
panse. As is fitting in those who are pushed forward to 
blaze the way of the advancing hosts, they are robust and 
strong. They are three solitary live-oaks, hearts of iron, 
rising in grandeur, and stretching out their broad arms as 
if saying to the prairies : " And you shall all come under 
our dominion ! " There they stand — grand, noble trees — 
at least a hundred miles in advance of their hosts, and not 
another tree of any sort probably within fifty miles ; seem- 
ing to feel proud of their solitude, as if by tiiis they knew 
they were the chosen agents of the Architect, by whose 
fiat they were thus advanced. Let them stand forever, or 
until their iron hearts are wasted by eternal time ! They 
probably saw this country before the foot of the European 
touched American soil ; the buffalo and the red man have 
rested under their shade for centuries; and now let them 
stand to witness the teeming populations of the east, that 



306 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

are destined to swarm around tliem under the torch-light 
of civilization. The messengers of God to foretell the 
advance of the hosts^ let them stand until he calls them 
hence ! 

The Cypress of Somma, which still stands on the lofty 
flanks of the Alps, was written of by Julius Caesar nineteen 
hundred and nineteen years ago. When Napoleon was 
cutting his great road over the Simplon, he stood in its 
shade and directed his engineers not to touch that tree. 
Thus we know that at least twenty centuries extend their 
shadowy wings around this venerable tree, and we are 
taught by it something of the age of the monarchs of the 
forest. Let him who dwells on this plain in the centuries 
to come, know by these signals that in the year of our 
Lord 1876, these three oaks, alone in the wide expanse, 
were apparently in middle life, fresh, powerful and vigor- 
ous. From this let them measure the life of the iron- 
hearted oak ! 

Pursuit and Death. — The Jaguar. 

After breakfast under the mantle of the prophets, we 
rode west, up the green valley between the mountains, and 
witnessed a scene which shows that all is not peace, even 
in this solitude. An antelope swept down the valley rap- 
idly toward us, a strange beast following closely behind 
him. They passed within thirty yards of us, and neither 
appeared to notice us. The antelope seemed nearly ex- 
hausted, while the animal in pursuit bounded along ap- 
parently without effort, as if conscious that the end was 
near. This was the ydgimr—felis onca — more commonly 
called the Mexican lion, one of the most ferocious of 
beasts : color light brown, body five to six feet in length, 
two and a half to three feet in height, and a heavy, tiger- 
like head. Our first impulse was to relieve the pretty 
antelope by discharging a volley into the jaguar, but we 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 807 

concluded to watch the result. The antelope changed 
his course, running through a narrow pass in the moun- 
tains to our left, and both disappeared. We followed, 
and had gone but a few hundred yards when we saw the 
antelope coming back on his tracks, the jaguar still in 
pursuit and almost at his heels. When opposite us, about 
fifty yards off, the jaguar with an easy bound sprang into 
the air, alighting upon the antelope's shoulders. He 
clasped his forefeet closely around the antelope's neck 
and buried his head under his throat — the poor animal in 
the meantime bawling and crying piteously. He stag- 
gered under the weight of the carnivore, and after a few 
steps fell to the ground, the latter still chnging to his 
throat. 

John and myself now jumped from our horses, and 
handing the reins to Powell, liastened to take part in the 
deadly scene, and to save the antelope if we could. At 
fifteen paces we opened fire with our pistols ; the jaguar 
turned to look at us a second, and then dashed up the 
mountain side — bullets in rapid succession striking the 
rocks about him. We fear we did not wound him, and he 
disappeared. The antelope rose and staggered a few paces 
and fell again. A large wound had been torn at the base 
of his throat, from which his blood was gushing. His 
flanks and shoulders were also torn by the sharp claws of 
the beast, and seeing that there was no hope for the poor 
animal, we shot him through the head to relieve him of 
his pain. It appeared from the wound, and the way that 
the jaguar crouched to his throat, that he had actually 
been drinking his blood while he struggled. Did such 
scenes occur before that fatal apple was eaten ? Ah, 
Mother Eve, if ancient legends are true, how grievous has 
been thy sin ! In thy gentleness and beauty, what a pity 
thou didst not know what cruel scenes would follow thy 
transgression ! Thy gentle heart would have sickened, and 



308 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

Eden would have needed no angel bands to ward thee 
against the tempter, and yet in vain ! * 

A Change Indeed. — The Floral Fiend. 

We did not return to the valley, but turned to the 
south-west, following an obscure trail, which seems to have 
been, at some day, a small road. It is not now all beauty 
and amenity ; quite the reverse. Barren, stony scopes oc- 
cur ; solitary, isolated mountains, and table-lands with 
perpendicular walls that look like fortresses. The walls of 
some of these are destitute of stones, composed of layers 
of clay and white, powdery marl, styptic as soda on the 
tongue. These fortress-like table lands are very peculiar 
and difficult to explain. They seem not to have been up- 
lifted, but rather that the contiguous lands have subsided 
away from them, by some accident leaving them standing 
alone. They are from ten to thirty feet in perpendicular 
height, and often quite inaccessible on top. For miles and 
miles no vegetation save a short crisp grass ; not a drop of 
water and no animal life. Finally we ride into a moun- 
tainous district, for which bleakness is no name, ^\ide, 
flat stones, sometimes extending hundreds of yards, emit a 
hollow sound under our horses' feet. In the crevices of 
these stones, that fierce ugliness, the prickly pear, has 
struck its roots, and strangely enough, flourishes in the 
unmatched sterility, luxuriating in what would be death 
to all other vegetation. Its ferocious aspect and the 
strangeness of its situation add to the grimness of the 
scene. This thing, living on stones in the most desolate 
spots of earth, reminds me of the infernal fiends who are 

* The jaguar is quite common in the uninhabited wilds of Western Texas, and 
is a very destructive beast, attacking and slaying full-grown horses and cattle 
He is said to be a dangerous animal to tamper with, and certainly his aspect 
would indicate it. Ue has a brutal, bull-dog head, short, heavy neck, and his 
power of spring is tremendous. It is not safe to hunt him except in companies. 
They often roar very like a lion, and have more resemblance to that animal than 
to either the cougar or tiger 



TWO THOUSAiN^D MILES I^S^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 309 

said to disport themselves and play games of hell in hissing 
flames and lakes of liquid fire. It may appropriately be 
called the Floral Fiend ; for surely it is hideous enough, 
bristling witli deadly spires, sharj^er than needles, and set 
off with flame-red phimes, suggestive of the flames below. 
I dare say if one should run against one of these fiends at 
night, he would smell an odor of brimstone. 

A Baxd of Philosophers. 

While riding along the flank of a mountain in this 
abode of the accursed, we saw beneath us in a verdureless 
vale, a company of antelopes walking hither and thither 
and curiously observing everything. They were not seek- 
ing food, for there was absolutely nothing of that sort. 
They would stand on the brink of a precipice, and project 
their heads as far over as possible, as if studying the dis- 
mal scenes below ; then they would contemplate the stony 
mountain sides, gazing at the misshapen masses of rock. 
We stopped to watch their curious behavior. Said I to 
the soldiers : " Those fellows are a band of philosophers 
who are exploring the wilderness for the love of science. 
See how curiously they inspect everything, from the grim 
exposure of the ravines to the lonely pebble on the waste. 
These be the ways of philosophers. They are probably 
getting up a cosmogony of their own, with which when 
they return to the plains, they will astonish the learned 
brethren. And dissertations and counter-dissertations will 
follow, till at length, perplexed and wearied, the brethren 
will fall back to the old faith." 

'' That's so," said Jones Johns ; ''for I always suspects 
a man to be a fraud that is too smart. He don't believe 
the half that he tells." 

'' I'll bet they are a gang of miners," said John Powell; 
'' running the risk of starvation and wolves to hunt for 
gold." 



310 TWO THOUSAND MILES II^" TEXAS 01^ H0KSE3ACK. 

*'They might as well be cosmogromers as anything 
else," said Jones Johns ; " for if they stay here they'll 
soon get so poor they'll not be fitten for anything else." 

But, in serious earliest, what brought these festive 
creatures hither ? It was real enjoyment of the unaccus- 
tomed scenes. Having touched the border and spied the 
oddity, a spirit of curiosity and inquiry impelled them to 
proceed to the centre and explore it — ^like a gang of truant 
schoolboys on a holiday, wandering iuto all sorts of odd 
places, and gathering fun from every object. Go on, fes- 
tive fellows ! I sympathize with you in your love of- na- 
ture ; and were I as hungry as a wolf, I would not shoot 
one of you for a league of land. There is more of God in 
his humblest creatures than the world is wilHng to admit. 

Seat of Desolation. — The Skeletons in Battle 

Array. 

At last, after mid-day, when all were weary, a long and 
tolerably smooth ascent rose before us, beyond whose crest 
no loftier region appeared. I said to myself : '•' That 
surely is the end. From that crest I shall behold the 
glorious prospect of verdant plain, and pleasing hill and 
vale." Our horses seemed equally inspired by that crest 
with no pinnacle beyond. They seemed to say to them 
selves: *' There be good grass and water beyond that." 
They urged briskly ahead, growing more and more impa- 
tient as they drew nearer the crest. 

We reached it ; and horse and rider turned pale or felt 
pale at the hideous spectacle that spread out interminably. 
It is a plain, it is true, but such a plain ! — barren, arid, 
horrid : occupied by gigantic castles of prickly pear, around 
which an army of grinning skeletons, with nodding, with- 
ered plumes, and armed with huge bayonets, are standing 
sentinel ! Our poor horses looked as if they were pierced 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 311 

with grief as thpy beheld this scene, and, lately so spirited, 
became all at once dull and lethargic. They viewed the 
grizzly castles and grinning skeletons with profound dis- 
gust and aversion. 

Do not imagine that it is a mere fancy — these grinning 
skeletons with withered plume and bayonet ! It is an 
army of Spanish Daggers, and so exact is the similitude 
that fancy is not needed to fill the picture. They stand 
six to eight and ten feet high, their summits capped with 
a withered plume of white flowers, and fearful two-edged 
blades, pointed as keen as needles, project outward from 
the scaly trunk in every direction. These withered plumes 
look like the hea^l of a soldier with flowing helmet. One 
not accustomed to them, riding suddenly upon them on a 
moonlight night, could hardly fail to be struck with amaze- 
ment, under the hallucination that he has ridden upon an 
army in battle array, with their guns levelled at his breast. 
They bear no foliage — nothing save these terrible swords or 
daggers, which are as terrible as any weapon of steel ever- 
manufactured by the murderous art of man. They are 
stout enough and sharp enough to be thrust easily through 
a man's body, and their slightly serrated edges, finished 
with a coat of glittering silica, are sharp as a razor. There 
is certainly no plant in nature of more forbidding aspect, 
unless it be its dread congener, the Floral Fiend, which 
here erects its great buildings twenty and thirty feet in 
height, with ugly archways beneath, through which a man 
could ride on horseback. Not a blade of grass is visible. 
The bare, pale-red earth is everywhere exposed, save where 
the black or grey rocks spread over the surface. Aridity ! 
he knows thee not who has not seen this ! Whence do 
these gigantic plants and castles, full of moisture, obtain 
their subsistence ? They are the true vegetable chameleons 
that 2:row fat on lio-ht and air. 

"Well, well," said John Powell, who had fallen into a 



312 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 

melancholy ; " what did the Almighty make such a coun- 
try as this for ? " 

'^Ah," said I, ''John Powell, this is the country 
where we shall make our fortunes. Tliis is even better 
than the sand-prairie. Those grim skeletons are a mint 
of gold to those who will work them skillfully and indus- 
triously, as we will. See those great swords that they 
point up at us. They are a mass of strong hempen cords, 
from which we may manufacture ropes and sacks without 
end. See those great heads and plumes ! From them we 
may distil an ardent spirit so strong that it shall make 
drunk even those who shall smell it. There on that stony 
surface, we can erect our factory and distillery ; and 
though in the wilderness, we can pursue our industry in 
security. Those terrible thorns and blades, and this 
wild desolation, will protect us better than a thousand 
cannons." 

" But what shall we do for water to drink and to 
make steam to run our machinery ?" said John Powell. 

'^ We have but to drill a hole into the caverns beneath 
us. Listen to the hollow sound they give forth to our 
horses' feet. There we shall find shady grottoes and bub- 
bling fountains." 

"And rattlesnakes by the wagon load," interposed 
Jones Johns. 

"Never mind the rattlesnakes if we can make a 
fortune," said John Powell. " We can smoke them 
out." 

" The plan will be to issue stock or shares and appoint 
a financial agent in New York and London. We shall call 
it the Great American Rope, Sack and Mescal Company. 
The shares will sell like hot cakes." 

" It is grand ! " said John Powell. 

" It is grand 1 " said Jones Johns. 



TWO THOUSAiTD MILES IK TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 313 



Of Him that ate Eed-Ridikg Hood. 

JSTow I know that I shall have some little boy and girl 
readers, and I should do wrong if I did not tell them what 
I did with the old wolf that ate little Red-Riding Hood. 
We had been riding an hour through this ugly forest, over 
the hard clay and rock, without seeing a living creature, 
save two or three lonely molly-cotton-tails that dwelt under 
the great cactus castles, when we suddenly beheld, about a 
hundred yards before us, that identical, bad old wolf. 
Although his head was pointing toward us, he was so in- 
tently engaged in smelling something on a rock, that he 
did not notice our approach. When within forty yards of 
him I levelled my rifle upon him, intending to shoot a ball 
through his head, but it missed its mark and shattered one 
of his fore-paws just above the joint. The old fellow rose 
on his hind-legs and raved and bit at his foot, as if he 
thought something had caught hold of him by it — not yet 
having seen us. We rode right upon him before he saw 
us, and what a glare of wicked fury he then cast upon us ! 
He tried to run away, but the soldiers drew their pistols, 
and before he had gone two steps, he fell pierced with bul- 
lets. In his dying moments he growled fiercely, and would 
no doubt have torn us to pieces, if he could have laid his 
strong jaws upon us. And thus died the wicked old wolf 
who ate up the sweet little Red-Riding Hood, who went to 
take her grandmamma a basket of fruit and cakes. Do 
you not think we served him right ? 

After he had eaten up the little Red-Riding Hood, he 
fled to this grim and distant region, where he thought he 
would be safe from the avengers of his sin ; but vengeance 
pursued him even here, as it will catch all who commit 
evil deeds. Thus every time the evil-doer does an evil 
thing, God at that very moment plants a switch to whip 
his back ; and that switch will grow, and wherever the 
14 



314 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS Oi?" HORSEBACK. 

evil-doer may go after that, that switch will follow him, 
and at last find his back and whip it welL The old wolf 
didn't think of this when he ate up'the good little girl; 
but don't you suppose he did think of it when he lay 
pierced with bullets, growling his dying growl ? 

The Mexicans call these big wolves "lobos," and the 
Texans call them " loafers," which is a corruption of the 
Mexican word. Their backs are arched, somewhat like 
the hyena, and they generally carry their heads close to 
the ground; as if smelling for something ; they are as big 
as a large, stout dog, and their hair is shaggy and brindled, 
though sometimes it is quite black. They are terrible on 
calves and colts, and will attack a grown animal when in 
force, if they happen to catch one by himself. I have 
never heard of their attacking a man in Texas, and this is 
probably because they are never driven to desperation by 
hunger. We left him to dry up on the bleak stones; for 
there does not seem to be even a buzzard in this cheerless 
region to eat him up. 

What it Has Beej^. — A Jurassic Sea. 

At three, the fantastic forest and castles thinned out, 
and grassy lawns appeared, though there is no water. 
We dismounted, and stripping our horses and hobbling 
them, gave them liberty. The soldiers reclined on the 
grass and slept. 

The conformation of this great region seems to show 
■unmistakably that it was once an inland sea, whose south- 
ern shore was probably at first along the Azoic hills below 
the San Saba, contracting gradually to the great backbone 
between McKavett and Kickapoo Springs ; whose western 
shore extended at least thus far, and whose northern shore 
may have reached the Ked River. Its eastern shore prob- 
ably crossed the Colorado above the mouth of the Concho, 
extending northward to the limit of Texas, and perhaps 



TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 315 

beyond. This immense basin slopes inward from every 
direction, but its deepest parts are probably along the val- 
leys of the Concho, not far from its southern border. The 
altitude of Fort Concho is only one thousand nine hun- 
dred feet above the sea, while that of the great ridge below 
Kickapoo Springs, and this on which I stand, must be 
quite a thousand feet higher. This sea in drying up left 
enormous deposits of gypsum, great beds and areas of salt 
and other alkalies, with which all the streams that flow 
through its ancient bed are more or less impregnated. This 
sea, as I believe, existed during the Jurassic Age. The 
geologists who have written of this region, from observa- 
tions at telescopic distance, or no observations at all, have 
all assigned it to the Cretaceous ; but my judgment is that 
there is little or no Cretaceous in it. I have seen no fossils 
to confirm this judgment ; but this great basin in its gen- 
eral outlines is totally unlike the Cretaceous as developed 
in other portions of Texas, or elsewhere. N'or has that 
formation in any other part of the globe, if this be Creta- 
ceous, developed such enormous deposits of gypsum and 
salt. If then it is Cretaceous, it is anomalous and without 
precedent. But it is not all Jurassic. There are frequent 
wide scopes of Permian, to the north and west, rich in 
copper, and occasional spurs of Carboniferous penetrate it 
from the east and north-east, like that in which true coal 
is found some miles above Fort Concho.* 

* This portion of Texas has never been geologically examined, except in a 
most cursory way ; and as it is not always easy to distinguish Jurassic from Cre- 
taceous fossils — many of them being similar — it is not strange that this region 
has been written Cretaceous. The late State Geologist, Prof. Buckley, rode 
over it in an ambulance, not deviating from the El Paso stage road. In his re 
port, he seems to support the general view, yet seems to have little confidence 
in his own opinion. In a letter to the writer of this note, who inquired as to the 
age of rocks about Kickapoo Springs, he says : " They may be Lower Silurian." 
There is probably little reason to doubt that our traveller's view in regard to the 
predominance of Jurassic in this region will be confirmed by careful observations. 
Gen. Egbert F. Viele, late of the F. S. Army, a thorough geologist, who has seen 
much of this country, sustained this view in a conversation with the writer in 
New York. 



316 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 



Plains. 

He who has seen the treeless expanses, dead level, or 
apparently so, over which the Pacific Railroad runs, must 
remember that the Texas plains are an entirely different 
thing. They are generally rolling, like the billows of a 
mighty sea ; or varied with beautiful table-lands, or lofty 
solitary mounds, or chains of mountains. There is no 
monotony here. The mind has no chance to grow weary. 
It has perpetual occupation, mostly beautiful and always 
interesting. The occasional barren and dismal spots only 
serve to increase the beauty of the rest. 

A Voice ik the Wilderness. 

Arousing my cavalry we journeyed on, and soon rode 
into a starlight night, which sometimes softened the as- 
perity of the grim-visaged region, and sometimes veiled it 
in more hideous mystery. After a few hours a long, low, 
black line rose against the western horizon, growing higher 
and higher as we drew nearer. That, said I, must be 
another of those strange and sudden elevations of the ter- 
ritory — another round in Jacob's Ladder ; either that or a 
great wall of stone. 

"If we do not find water there," said Jones Johns, 
" what will our poor horses do ? They can now hardly 
stagger along." 

" They can sip dew from the grass. The cool night 
will be kind to them." 

" And what if there is no grass ? " said John Powell. 
'^ If we are put afoot in this region, it is death, and it 
stares us in the face now." 

" Never mind ; our time is not yet, boys. We will 
reach the haven." 

The position was undoubtedly an ugly one. We know 
not whither we are going, or how long the way ; for we 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 317 

had seen enough of the maps of Texas to know that they 
are totally unreliable in their delineation of this Terra 
Incognita. 

The great black line now seemed to have a gentle sway- 
ing motion at its apex, at times concealing and then re- 
vealing the white stars that rested upon it. The wind 
brought an aromatic odor to our nostrils. Tliat, com- 
rades, said I, is a great belt of forest. There we shall find 
water and rest. 

When quite near it, it seemed an enormous mass of 
black foliage. What manner of gigantic trees are these, 
wrapped in dense foliage from base to summit? 

We stood under their limbs, on the brink of a preci- 
pice which sloped downward into an apparently bottomless 
gulf. We now observed, first from the fragrance, then 
from plucking the boughs, that it was a forest of cedars ; 
wliich seemed to be marching out of the gulf, and yet had 
not planted their feet upon the firm ground above. Where 
we stood on the edge of the bluff, these great trees towered 
a hundred feet above our heads, and half their length ap- 
peared limbless. We felt our way cautiously down the 
bluff in utter darkness, completely obscured from each 
other, and our horses' feet making no sound on the sur- 
face, strewn thick with the fallen leaves of the cedars ; 
emerging at last suddenly into the starlight on a broad 
open plain, without tree or bush. The great cedars, the 
grandest I ever saw — the grandest that even the eternal 
angels ever beheld — stopped short at the foot of the de- 
clivity, not passing an inch beyond. Turning to look up- 
on them, it was as a solid wall of for-est, extending north 
and south beyond the vision, the trunks as straight as the 
line of a plumb, without a branch from fifty to seventy- 
five feet above the ground. Can I be mistaken that it is 
the grandest forest in the world ? And to scorn the fer- 
tile soil, hugging only the stony cliffs of a precipice ! Is 



818 TWO THOUSAND MILES IJS" TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 

not that odd, especially in view of their rich, resinous 
wood ? 

The grass reaches np to our saddles, cool and dripping 
with dew ; and as our poor horses were greatly jaded, we 
unbridled them and gave them rope, — we in the mean- 
time reclining under the great cedars, inhaling their aro- 
matic fragrance. 

"Where will we turn up next?" said John Powell. 

'^On the banks of a mighty, silent river, whose waves 
once beat upon the top of this cliS ; a river that hur- 
ried to the ocean, itself an ocean — tbrice grander than the 
Mississippi." 

''How far ?" said John Powell. 

"This is its valley!" 

"Joyful! Joyful!" exclaimed Jones Jolms ; "then 
we shall soon drink. Not a drop in my canteen since Skele- 
ton Plain, and I have been chewing a bullet these two 
hours past." 

In less than half an hour, our horses had garnered 
their granaries full, and fell to nibbling at tit-bits. It is 
time to move on, comrades ! We had bridled them and 
were coiling up the ropes. 

"Blazes ! what is that ?" said Jones Johns. 

A deep, tremendous roar from the cliil resounded 
through the valley, unlike anything I had heard before. 
Again it broke upon the silence, with modulations or 
waves of sound, as if the object that made it was swaying 
to and fro. It was deep, guttural and hoarse, and seemed 
to tell of strength and ferocity. This came from the cliff 
just above us. Another responded, deeper and hoarser, a 
few hundred yards below. Our horses were no less moved 
than we. " Boys," said T, "it is time to go." 

We rode away into the valley as silently as skulking 
wolves, speaking not a word, and often looking back 
through the darkness. Twice again in quick succession 



TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 319 

the air trembled with the deep roars, apparently as near as 
when we first heard it. 

" Buffalo bulls ! " said John Powell in a suppressed 
voice. 

'^ Never !" said I. ^^ That is the voice of some fero- 
cious beast of prey that is on our tracks. Keep watch to 
the rear." 

Passing rapidly on, we were stopped at length on the 
very brink of the silent river ; on the verge of its waters 
before we saw it. It was of inky blackness and seemed a 
dead sea river. Shall we plunge and cross, or shall we stay 
here and take our chances with those beasts ? I dropped 
a line in the water and found it ten feet deep at the bank, 
which is six feet perpendicular above the water. We 
could not distinctly see the opposite shore, but there also 
was the appearance of a steep bluff. We concluded we 
would rather risk the roarers than plunge into such a river 
in the darkness. 

We soon found a slope or cut in the bank which ad- 
mitted our horses to the water. They drank and snorted, 
and snorted and drank, greatly to our disgust, as wc de- 
sired things to be as quiet as possible. We staked them 
on the tall grass, but instead of eating, they immediately 
laid down and slept. Lighting a match and viewing my 
watch, it was near midnight. We had travelled over fifty 
miles since sunrise. 

We spread our blankets close to the bank, intending 
to be safe from attack on one side at least. We deemed 
it not good policy to fall asleep at once, but as the weary 
moments passed on, and nothing remarkable occurred, we 
entered the land of Nod. Once during the night we were 
disturbed by a splash in the water, as if some heavy body 
had leaped or fallen into it, followed for some moments by 
a struggling sound; but nothing came of it. We slept on 
the bank of the mighty Pecos. 



DIVISION VI. 



I. 



A MoKNiNG Bath. 

WHEN we awoke, the sun was discharging his glory 
from a lofty altitude. It was a bright, sparkling 
morning, the *^ sweet south" whispering to us long life 
and good cheer. How the radiant grasses glistened like a 
field of diamonds, with their myriads of dew-drops ! I 
had slept gloriously, and felt like a young lion, as I shook 
the dew-drops from my flanks. Now compare me here 
with one who has waked from a debauched night in the 
cities, languid and feverish ; and which does Nature, 
who made us, love the more ? If she had a crown to be- 
stow, upon whose brow would she bestow it ? Nature ! 
make me pure as thou art pure, and immerse all my heart 
in love of thee ! Then I know that the crown will await 
me, and like the humming-bird, I shall taste only of the 
beautiful, and linger along labyrinths of flowers ! 

*' I feel that I could eat a wolf," said Jones Johns. 

" I feel that I could get away with half a buffalo ;" said 
John Powell. 

'^ Wouldn't a fat steak in a bowl of gravy, and a pile 
of hot biscuits, and a pot of hot coffee, and a dish of bacon 
and beans, and a plate of ham and eggs, and a dish of 
fried inguns, and a bunch of fresh celery be good this 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS 01^ HOSSEBACK. 321 

morning — and a plate of broiled mutton chops and a 
stewed mackerel swimming in butter ? " said Jones 
Johns, 

And his mouth watered, and he spat copiously while he 
spake. ''Never mind, boys, we shall have all of these 
when we get to the next post. In the meantime, for break- 
fast we shall fare well." 

What a funny river, if it be not a perversion to say 
funny of what is so great ! Not a tree, nor a twig along 
its banks ; nothing but grass — grass, which musters in 
heavy force upon the brink of the steep bank and leans 
over to kiss the water ; so that the presence of the river can- 
not be suspected until the voyager is on the verge of tum- 
bling into it. I said it was silent. So it is ; but still ? 
Never ! It sweeps by like a courier race-horse on an 
errand. Toss a stem of grass into it, and it disappears 
almost as quickly ''as snow-flakes on the river." And all 
this without the sound of a ripple, or a murmur. The 
motion of the winged messengers of the deep is described 
as " smooth gliding without step ;" and so of the mighty 
Pecos as he sweeps by to pay his tribute to the Bravo. 
He seems bewitched. I said— "Boys, let us cross the 
river, and then we shall eat ! " 

Revisiting the narrow passage which led to the water, 
I saw a similar passage on the other shore, but a huge 
cedar log was lodged across it, its ends resting against tlie 
bank of the river, above and below. Unless we dislodge 
that log we cannot get our horses across, owing to the 
steepness of the bank elsewhere and the depth of the water. 
I said I will go and dislodge that log. 

Disrobing myself, I lit into the river and sank out of 
sight. When I returned to the surface, I had been swept 
many feet out of the line, but being a strong swimmer I 
shot over the water as freely as a duck. And sure it was 
cool, like a snow-julep. Nevertheless, I dropped mv line 
14' 



322 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS 0^ HOKSEBACK. 

leisurely a hundred feet from shore, and it measured thirty 
feet in depth ! Crawling over the log, I thought I would 
stand on the bottom and shove it off from shore ; so let- 
ting go all hold, I slid downward far over my head, with- 
out finding anything to stand upon. Kising again to the 
surface, I grasped the log with both hands, and throwing 
my body prone on the flood, endeavored to put the mass 
in motion by vigorously kicking with my heels. At last 
it moved slowly, then more rapidly, till swaying out in 
the stream, it glided rapidly away. I swung around with 
the butt end till it reached the point for my departure, 
when a few vigorous strokes landed me in fine humor on 
the eastern shore. I thought of the youth who nightly 
swam the Hellespont to bask in the sunlight, and the 
moonlight, and the starlight of his sweetheart's eyes : 
with this difference, that while he crossed to dally with 
love, I crossed to dislodge a log. I wonder how Leander 
transported his clothes on that trip; or did he leave them 
on shore and interview Hero, naked ? 

We now saddled up, and while thus engaged, I observed 
that my companions had fallen quite sedate and contem- 
plative ; saying nothing, but now and then curiously eying 
the great rapid river, as if they were mentally saying to it 
— " You big, ugly thing !" They clearly had a dread of 
it, akin to superstition. The soldiers then stripped, and 
we fastened our clothing securely to the horns of our sad- 
dles, and rolling our guns and ammunition up in the 
blankets, tied them behind the saddles. 

'' Now, boys," said I, '"'let us cross one at a time. If 
we all go together, some confusion may result. I will go 
first." 

Taking my horse to the river, spurring him gently, he 
smelt the water, and trembled and snorted. He reared 
back to the right and left several times, refusing to take 
the plunge ; but at last, seeing that he had to do so, he 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS 0:N" HORSEBACK. 323 

stuck out his left fore foot into the water, cautiously, as if 
feeling for bottom ; but not finding any, he lost his bal- 
ance and tumbled headlong into the current. We sank 
under the surface, and for a moment everything was con- 
fusion. I believe we rolled over, but of this I am not sure, 
for the position was not favorable to taking observations. 
I was conscious of a very great uproar, and clasped my 
heels about the horse with all my strength. Kecovering 
himself, he rose into daylight, and struck out splendidly 
to the opposite shore, describing a great curve before he 
reached the landing. He bounded to the high land, and 
at once shook his skin so prodigiously that my seat was 
extremely disagreeable, and I bounded off as quick as pos- 
sible. 

" Now, Jones Johns ! " I exclaimed across the water. 

His horse slipped in at once, like a turtle sliding off a 
rock ; sank out of sight a moment, all save his nose and 
tail, and bore the soldier bravely across, almost in a direct 
line. ^' Oo-wee ! she is cold though, I tell you ; " said 
he as he leaped to the turf. *'I tell you, comrade, you'd 
better wrap your wool close around you ! " 

" Now, John Powell ! " 

His horse commenced acting foolishly at once, smelling 
and snorting as if he imagined the devil was in the water. 
Urged by the spur, he reared and flung himself to the 
right so violently that the soldier was nearly displaced 
from the saddle. Again he attempted this when brought 
to the brink, rearing high in the air ; but this time he 
made a miscalculation. His left hind foot slipped over 
the precipice, and his body came tumbling after, falling 
into the river apparently with back down and heels up. 
For a moment I thought we should have a funeral ; but 
when the horse righted himself, the soldier was still stick- 
ing bravely to his back, with both arms around his neck, 
his mouth full and his eyes blinded with water. Had 



324 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

there not been a sense of danger, the picture would have 
been extremely ludicrous as the soldier emerged to the 
surface. By this time, they were swept fifty feet down 
stream, the horse behaving well, but apparently in confu- 
sion. The soldier, recovering his sight and faculties, gen- 
tly guided him with the rein, and he came rapidly across, 
but struck the bank far below the landing. Up along the 
bank they navigated, the tall grass wiping the soldier's 
face, until he was deposited safely on shore. 

^* Drat your blasted hide of you ! " said he, as he leaped 
off and looked at his excited and snorting steed ; ^^ that's 
what you git by being a d — d lunacy. It's the last time I'll 
ventur in a river on your back ! " 

Our first care was to examine our ammunition, which 
to our great satisfaction we found uninjured. Then 
spreading our clothing on the tall grass to dry, we pro- 
ceedPedjin primitive nakedness, to prepare breakfast. Pro- 
curing branches of drifted cedar, we soon had a roaring 
fire, on which we cooked coffee and buffalo meat. It was 
eleven o'clock before our clothing was dry enough to put 
on ; when we rode up the valley some twenty miles, and 
again halted. 

The Most Remarkable River in the World. 

This is the most remarkable river in the world, and 
flows through the most remarkable country. It rises 
about latitude 36**, and empties into the Rio Grande about 
29° 40'. Thus, its direct course is about four hundred 
and fifty miles, but so great is its sinuosity that it traverses 
not less than eighteen hundred miles before reaching its 
debouchment. In this eccentricity, there is no other river 
that is its fellow. Meander is a straight line by the side 
of my Pecos. I drew this picture of his course, which I 
protest is accurate, or as nearly so as I could make it with- 
out the aid of engineer's tools. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 1^ TEXAS 03^ HORSEBACK. d'<>b 






And while this is a marvel of crookedness, I believe from 
others who have travelled along its banks a much greater 
distance, that it does not tell half the story. And yet, as 
the picture shows, with all this unprecedented tortuosity of 
the stream itself, its valley is so straight that one can 
scarcely perceive that it has a curvature. Another re- 
markable feature is that it seldom touches the wall of the 
valley, but pursues its rapid career as near the centre as 
possible, one to three miles from either side. Its tremen- 
dous current and the soft, melting soil of the valley, make 
this the more singular. 

The rapidity of this river is the strangest thing to one 
who rides upon its banks. He sees a channel without a 
stone, and a wide valley as level as a floor, and yet the 
silent river rushes by him like a charger. The Mississippi, 
that travels forty-one hundred miles, has no such current 
as this; not the half of it ; not the fourth of it. It bowls 
along over the smooth bed six or seven miles an hour ; 
which is swifter far than any other deep river in the 
world, except Niagara, after it has been tortured into the 
chasm between the Falls and Lewiston ; and if it were 
not so tortuous, it would nearly match that seething, 
arrowy river. Its tortuosity impedes its impetuosity at 
least one half, as 1 estimate ; so that if its channel were 
straight, it would dash along at the rate of twelve to four- 
teen miles an hour : a force sufficient to tear up the solid 
strata and cut its way into the fiery nucleus at lasL 



326 two thousand miles in texas on horseback. 

The Cause of it. — The Hand of the Architect. 

Tlie Pecos rises on the Llano Estacado, and flows over 
it along its whole course. This is a vast table-land, tilted 
over toward the south-east. It is said to be five thousand 
feet above the sea at its upper rim, and one thousand feet 
at its lower. I can now perceive that the first altitude 
is probably under-estimated. My Pecos rises near the 
upper rim and flows over four hundred miles over the 
great tilted table. This would give it a fall of about ten 
feet to the mile ; and when it is considered that the aver- 
age fall of the Mississippi is only about three inches to the 
mile, it can be readily perceived what an extraordinary 
creature my Pecos must be, and how vastly more furious 
he would be, were he not held in check by the extraordi- 
nary sinuosities through which nature has compelled him 
to grope his way. 

This unmatched and unmatchable sinuosity, in so 
straight a valley, is unaccountable by any natural law that 
I can think of. The course of an arrow through the air 
is straight, and water flows in straight lines over smooth 
surfaces. In this strange land nature works in mysterious 
ways ; and I can only perceive in this apparent eccen- 
tricity, the hand of the Architect compelling my Pecos to 
do his full duty. Were he not restrained by the sinuosi- 
ties, he would shoot over the great tilted table so rapidly 
that his volume would not be half what it is. The sinuos- 
ities are great natural locks that hold him in check and 
utilize his waters and their fertilizing sediments. The 
thirsty soil needs all the drink and food he can give it, and 
therefore the Architect compels him to wander through 
labyrinths, offering his cooling draughts to millions of 
acres that would not enjoy him if he dashed over the great 
taole in a straight line. 

Its banks are as perpendicular as the walla of an edifice, 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 327 

rising six feet above the water, to the level of the valley, 
composed of mud, which on drying, falls into an impal- 
pable powder. An animal may wander along its banks half 
a day without finding a point where he may drink. In- 
deed, in my twenty miles ride along it I saw but one point 
on either side where he could do so ; and these were the 
artificial excavations where we crossed. 

* 

His Water. 

It is the most remarkable fluviatile compound in the 
world. Jones Johns was very thirsty when we reached the 
river. He took a rapid and heavy draught, and smacking 
his lips a moment, said: '^My God! all them buffaloes 
and wild horses is camped on this river, and their dreen- 
age has pizened it ! " The first sensation in tlie mouth is 
a slimy saltness, as if salt had been melted in soapy water ; 
next a faint sweetness, followed by a distinct bitter, finally 
winding up with a distinct taste of ley. It is cool and in- 
odorous, and its disagreeable taste is quite vanquished by 
holding the nose as you drink. Coffee boiled in it is a 
villainous decoction. The physician who compounded this 
great river of physic probably wrote the prescription about 
thus : 

1,000,000 tons Mu. Sod. 

400,000 " Sulph. 

1,000,000 " Cin. Lig. 

4,000,000 gallons Tinct. amarg. 
Aqua Pluv. quant, suf. 
Shake well till dissolved and repeat ad infln. 

This shows the remarkable region through which it 
flows: a great natural laboratory, composed mainly of beds 
and mountains of salt and gypsum. 

The Nile and My Pecos. 
The Nile, through all ages, has been considered one of 



328 TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

the wonders of the world, in that it flows a thousand miles 
without a tributary. But my Pecos beats it. I question 
if during its career of one thousand eight hundred miles, 
over a region which often does not receive a drop of rain 
for six months at a time, it has a single tributary that con- 
stantly discharges into it. On tlie maps there are several 
long, crooked black marks, called Eio so-and-so, which 
would lead the unwary to suppose that they are rivers 
emptying into the Pecos ; but let him visit them, and he 
will surely find that these black marks with sounding 
names, are desolate ravines, with abysmal pools here and 
there, or perhaps a feeble rill witli an enormous channel, 
sinking after a short distance into burning sands, or disap- 
pearing under a yawning chasm. The Nile bursts from a 
grand mountain lake, lifted above the continent, starting 
on his proud course a warrior full-armed at birth, refreshed 
as he goes by the melting snows of the Lunar Mountains ; 
but my Pecos, more worth renown, emerges a puny, sickly 
infant from a poor ravine, gathers strength as he goes, 
and cuts his way unaided through one thousand eight hun- 
dred miles of desert ; and not a snow-clad mountain on his 
line to offer him an iced julep as he plunges along. Let 
the Nile strip off his laurels, and place them on the brow of 
my Pecos. The Nile has his periods of swell, after which 
he collapses for ten or eleven mouths into a common 
thing : my Pecos rolls so grandly at all times that he is 
hardly conscious of a swell when he takes one. The Nile 
has enriched a nation, that gave letters and civilization to 
the world ; and my Pecos has enriched a nation that has 
yet to be. 

The Soil.— Irrigation and Navigation. 

The soil of this great valley, composed of the lime, sul- 
phur and gait sediments of the river, with the accumula- 
ted rotted matter of the rank grasses, is of course, of amaz- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 329 

ing fertility. There is not one foot of it that is not fer- 
tility itself. All the crops of Texas would here luxuriate, 
if supplied with regular moisture, and I know of no valley 
that may be more easily irrigated. Smooth as a floor, and 
falling regularly ten feet or more to the mile, there are 
probably few points on the river from which a ditch would 
not bring the fertilizing water to the surface three-quarters 
of a mile below. A ditch ten miles in length and eight 
feet in depth would flood the valley to a great distance. 
How easy to construct these with locks so as to irrigate 
every foot ! Thus, this great valley, now without an in- 
habitant save vagabond savages, is capable of supporting a 
nation in itself ; whose products might be borne to the 
Rio Grande on boats, thence to the navigable water of that 
river by rafts or teams. A railroad to this valley would 
make it at once a garden of wealth, receiving in turn a 
trade which would soon enrich itself. The river is two 
hundred feet in width, and at no point where I saw it, less 
than ten to thirty feet in depth. On account of its rapid 
curves it would require a peculiar steamer to navigate it, 
but human ingenuity would soon build such a craft. The 
water is dark and turbid, bearing an immense amount of 
sediment. I estimate the rich agricultural lands of this 
remarkable valley at not less than two millions of acres. 



II. 



Adam's Curse. — Fantastic Shapes. 

TURNING west, from the seat of the unborn giant, we 
rode into a region of disheartening aspect. We had 
stepped out of Eden into Gehenna. As far as I could 
sweep with my glass, scarcely a blade of grass, but a dead 
expanse of naked ground, with Spanish daggers scattered 
like skirmishers in advance of a battle, fantastic castles of 
the Floral Fiend, and numerous thickets of sage brush, 
almost impenetrable from their myriads of spines. Every- 
thing is armed with points keener than needles. Surely, 
Adam's curse has fallen heavily upon this abandoned tract : 
'* Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." 

And yet this melancholy scene is not devoid of a certain 
sort of interest. Solitary granitic and porphyritic cones rise 
fifty to two hundred feet above the plain, some of them pol- 
ished as smoothly as glass ; then, here and there a great wall 
of massive basalt rises abruptly, extending hundreds of yards 
north and south or north-east and south-west. One of 
these looked so like a giant fortress, that we rode out of our 
way to stand under its shadow. We supposed it to be two 
hundred feet high— its walls perfectly perpendicular, and 
not an atom of soil upon it. It is safe to say that no hu- 
man being ever trod on this thing's back. The walls of 
this also were in places polished so smoothly that a fly 
could scarcely crawl up them. If this is not glacial action, 
I am not able to comprehend it. I believe therefore that 
this region has been the scene of great glaciers. Under 



TWO THOUSAND MILES Iiq" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 331 

the walls of this monstrous fortress, a colony of prairie- 
dogs had built their city, in the barren, waterless waste. 

Toward sunset we rode upon the wide, desolate chan- 
nel of a dried up creek, filled with fractured limestone and 
mounds of white, glittering sand. Following it up a few 
miles, we found a bright clear pool, into which ran a smart 
brook. It here met its death, and sank in the depths of 
sand. There was a little valley of excellent grass, and we 
took up quarters for the night. With fagots of sage-brush 
we cooked some coffee, and ate cheese and crackers. 



III. 



The Eose in" the Wilderitess. — What it would be. 

AT daylight resumed our journey, arriving at Fort 
Stockton after noon, fifty- two miles from the Pecos. 
It was stepping out of Gehenna again into Eden. Behind 
us was all aridity, abhorrence and desolation ; before us, 
green fields, rich gardens, bubbling fountains and all 
efflorescence. A sweeter surprise it is impossible to con- 
ceive. We felt like a caravan entering a sweet oasis in 
the desert, and I never before fully comprehended what 
these bright oases are. They are life and joy in the 
midst of death ; they are the glimpses of heaven ; and I 
suspect that the eastern poets drew from them their rich 
pictures of the Abode of the Blest. 

This is a military post of the United States, where six 
companies of negro cavalry are quartered. The post sits 
on a majestic hill, three thousand feet above the sea, from 
the base of which probably a hundred springs burst forth, 
some of them so large that they are used for baths. These 
unite and run down a valley as fertile as that of the Pecos, 
over which it is led by a number of ditches, irrigating 
three thousand acres, whose crops are enriching the 
farmers. One of these is said to receive an annual income 
from his wheat, barley and corn, of ten thousand dollars. 
The El Paso grape, than which there is none richer, here 
flourishes abundantly. As I looked upon this magnificent 
garden in the desert, I said to myself : '' This is what the 
Pecos would be if it were irrigated ; this is what all the 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IJ^^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 333 

wilderness and desert would be if they had Artesian wells. 
Who will take the first step to erect the great wilderness 
into a garden of luxuriance ? Hear it, ye statesmen and 
law-makers of Texas ! " 

But bold as this beautiful creek is, it flags and at last 
fails utterly a few miles from Stockton — drunk up by the 
arid laud and clime, leaving a lorn chasm of desolation. 
Suppose it were encouraged and assisted by an Artesian 
well here and there along its course, and trees planted on 
its banks to shade it from the devouring sun : it would 
sing and sparkle along the whole line, ever fresh and 
abundant, bringing beauty to the land and wealth and 
happiness to thousands. 

The population, outside of the military, appears to be 
about two hundred, all Mexican laborers, except the few 
American proprietors. The houses are all adobe, except 
the quarters of the officers, which are of stone. But one 
tree grows at the post — a cotton -wood fifty feet in height, 
planted by the officers some years ago. It seems to be say- 
ing to every one who beholds it : '•' Bring me companions — • 
you see that we will thrive here." Fruit trees have been 
lately introduced, and there can be no question that the 
Stocktonians will soon enjoy the peach and pear at their 
boards as well as the luscious grape. 

The annual rainfall here is about fifteen inches, some- 
times as high as twenty-five, nearly all of which comes 
during August and September. These showers are at- 
tended with almost unprecedented discharges of lightning, 
and frequently the clouds are said to hang over the land 
for hours at a time, doing nothing whatever but manoeuver- 
ing and discharging peal after peal of thunder ; finally, 
near the close of day, separating and leaving a brilliant 
sunset. The mean winter temperature is about fifty-five, 
and the summer seventy to seventy-five. The post sur- 
geon declared it to be so healthy that no one ever dies ex- 



334 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 

cept from " old age, stupidity or violence, and we are so 
good a family here that the last rarely occurs." They ob- 
tain their fuel from the roots of the mesquite, as they do 
at Concho, and it is abundant. 

We bought a bushel of corn from the sutler for four 
dollars, which was an abominable extortion, for we learned 
afterwards that we might have obtained it from the farm- 
ers at two dollars and fifty cents. We bought a ham and 
some coffee from the same worthy, paying fifty cents a 
pound for each. If that worthy has constituency enough, 
surely he will grow rich. An old Mexican woman was 
much more reasonable. She supplied us an excellent din- 
ner of soup, sweet potatoes, onions, eggs, venison, hash 
and bread, for fifty cents each. The soup and hash were 
red-hot with red-pepper, but they were fine nevertheless. 
I was so much pleased with my meal, that I could scarcely 
forbear kissing the old lady's pretty daughter, who assisted 
her in preparing it. 



IV. 

Rode to Leon Springs, eight miles, over a cactus and 
sage brush desolation. This is a stage stand of the El Paso 
mail line, and the only remarkable feature is a marsh of 
several hundred acres, filled with salty water, and covered 
with a coarse, rank, reedy-looking growth. This is a sud- 
den depression of the earth from eight to ten feet below 
the level. The water is so salty that it is extremely dis- 
agreeable to drink, and made villainous coffee, and yet it 
is all we had. Encamped for the night, feasting on fried 
ham and buffalo meat. 



V. 



Remarkable Region". — A Dolorous Day. 

FILLINGr our canteens with the salty water, at three 
o'clock we were on the march, riding south. When 
day dawned, we saw the most unaccountable country in 
the world, which steadily grew more unaccountable as we 
moved on : a lofty, smooth plain, treeless as the ocean, but 
with innumerable varieties of cactus and thickets of sage 
brush : ground for the most part without a wisp of grass : 
isolated mounds of rocks in every direction, shaped like a 
sugar-loaf, many of them two hundred feet or more in 
height, and all smooth or polished. These were ejections 
under the primitive sea, around which the sedimentary 
deposits have settled, till only their peaks are exposed. 
But the most peculiar feature is occasional mounds of glit- 
tering white sand, sometimes piled up forty or fifty feet 
high, and covering an acre or more. These things gliti^ 
tered in the sun like snow-banks, and looked so strangely 
that we rode some distance out of the way to examine the 
first one. It was composed of pure quartz sand, unmixed 
with any other substance. So far as we could observe, 
there was very little of this in the soil, and their appear- 
ance here is very perplexing. The only way that I can 
explain them is on the supposition that they may be the 
remnants of mounds of solid quartz rock that once rose 
above the plain, similar to the cones of granite and por- 
phyry that still stand. "Ah," said Jones Johns, contem- 
plating one of the biggest of these things, ^' that would be 



336 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

worth fifty thousand dollars in San Antonio. Here it is 
worth nothing. It is like a great man out of his element. 
For instance, what would I amount to, turned loose among 
the heathen niggers of Africa ? And what would Gen. 
Grant have come to among them niggers ? Great men 
should live where folks appreciates 'em and there's no 
sense in this sand being here." 

No life in this region except prairie-dogs, and they have 
built under the shadow of the cones, as if seeking shade. 
Where is the grass that these fellows feed on here, and 
where the water they drink ? Does not this confirm their 
subsistence in subterranean forests, and quiet lakes therein ? 

We rode on, on, and on, over this marvellous country, 
without a drop of water in it, or even a ravine to tell 
where water had been. We had been greatly persecuted 
with thirst all day, the salty stuff in our canteens exciting, 
instead of allaying it ; and when the last drop was gone 
our sufferings became great. Our mouths became thick 
and gummy, and finally feverish. We tried to mend this 
by chewing bullets, and it did help considerably. Our 
poor horses suffered terribly, and toward nightfall were so 
far gone that they moved as heavily as chunks of lead, 
and reeled like drunken men. It looked as if death was 
in our faces ; but at ten o'clock a chain of mountains rose 
out of the darkness close beside us. Our horses immedi- 
ately freshened up, and actually forcing us to go their own 
way, at last we heard the babbling of waters, and the 
next moment our horses had their heads deep in the dear 
liquid. We dismounted, and it was delicious ! Do not 
talk of champagne, iced, in goblets of gold : it is nothing 
to this heaven-born liquid. As I drank, the satisfaction 
I felt was heavenly. I knew this was Willow Springs, as 
marked on the maps, fifty-six miles from Leon Springs. 
The grass was fine. Having hobbled our horses upon it, 
and eaten heartily of 'jerked beef and crackers, we stretched 
ourselves on the ground to sleep. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS 0]Sr HORSEBACK. 3.37 



The Night of Wolyes. 

We had not time to close our eyes before plain and 
mountain began to resound with the howl of lotos, or the 
big wolves. They gathered nearer and nearer, until we 
could hear them tripping in the grass all around us. We 
became alarmed lest they might attack our horses, and 
going to them with pistol in hand, we staked them to lopes 
very close to us, and again fell to our blankets. The 
wolves now seemed to sit on their hunkers in a circle about 
us, and proceeded to deliver a great serenade. I endeav- 
ored to interpret their language, and it seemed this, as 
near as I could make it : 

Oh, strangers, have you any meat to spare, 

From your sacks so large and strong ? 
We smell a good smell on the cool night air, 

As it comes — as it comes along. 
It is incense sweet, the smell of that meat ; 

It is juicy and tender, we know : 
A buffalo's hump, or a heifer's rump. 

Or a good fat buck, we trow : 

We trow — 
Or a good fat buck, we trow. 

Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; 
Oh, bow, wow, wow, wow, wow ! 

Behold in us a hungry crew. 

Who have wandered night and day 
O'er hill and dale, through ravine and vale. 

In pursuit of the flying prey. 
But the buffalo moves ten thousand strong. 

In fierce and terrible array ; 
And when we dash that herd among. 

He drives poor wolf away : 

Away— 
He drives poor wolf away ! 

Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; 
Oh, bow, wow, wow, wow, wow 1 
15 



338 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

And the buck he speeds with the speed of the wind- 
Jehu ! how he can run ! 

We pursue for miles, with guiles and wiles. 
Only to be outdone ! 

The antelope dwells on the prairies wide, 
And his eyes like the eagle's are ; 

The wolf he sees, or he smells us on the breeze, 
And he bounds o'er the prairies afar: 

Afar — 
He bounds o'er the prairies afar ! 

Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; 

Oh, bow, wow, wow, wow, wow ! 

But, strangers, you have your rifle true, 

With the deadly si ug and ball ; 
At whose fiery crack, they halt in their track, 

And reel, and die, and fall. 
You have wealth of meat, juicy and sweet. 

You are happy and fat alway ; 
You know not the sorrows of the poor lorn wolf. 

As he howls, as he howls by the way : 

By the way — 

As he howls, as he howls by the way. 
Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; 
Oh, bow, wow, wow, we say ! 

Ye favored ones, be kind to the wolf, 

And he'll be kind unto you ; 
And the Father above who made us all, 

He will mark the good that ye do. 
From His hands came we, from his hands came ye ; 

We are brothers in His glorious reign ; 
So share the blessings He has showered on you, 

With your poor, lost friend of the plain : 

Of the plain — 

Of your poor, lost friend of the plain. 

Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; 

Of your poor, lost friend of the plain. 

'^ Good gracious ! " said John Powell ; ^' let's give them 
poor things a bone. They sings like their hearts was 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 339 

busting." At length they dropped their serenade and went 
away one by one ; but their distant cries were in our ears 
as long as we lay awake. They were probably not half as 
hungry as they pretended to be, and doubtless much of 
their vaunted misery was mere put-on. 



VI. 



Among the Min"ekals. — " There they are, for a 

FACT ! " 

WE slept profoundly until three o'clock, when we 
journeyed a little west of south under the moon- 
light. The small brook formed by Willow Springs ran a 
short distance and sank in the earth. The country as we 
rode along was exceedingly beautiful : fertile vales and 
swelling tumuli, all dressed in a carpet of grass as smooth 
and luxuriant as it is possible to conceive. We thought 
that something of this was due to the soft moonlight ; but 
when the sun rose it only disclosed a wider prospect of 
gracefulness, beauty and fertility. Flocks of deer were 
feeding in every direction, which raised their heads and 
gazed at us with more curiosity than fear. Athwart our 
path in the distance lay a chain of lofty and rugged 
mountains, some of which disclosed to the glass bright 
white lines running over them, as if they were decked in 
ribbons. At ten o'clock we approached these mountains, 
and finding a splendid spring of pure, cold water, we dis- 
mounted and turned our horses to the grass, having rid- 
den, as we supposed, about twenty-eight miles. 

Here was plenty of mesquite brush and wild cherry. 
After a feast in which the last of our buffalo meat disap- 
peared, Jones Johns and myself went on a prospecting 
tour among the mountains, leaving John Powell with the 
horses. In the narrow valleys and gorges of the moun- 
tains, and reaching as- high up their flanks as the soil ex- 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 341 

tended, we found forests of cedar, which even excelled 
those of the bank of Pecos Valley. Thousands of these 
were a hundred feet in height, three to four feet in diame- 
ter, without a limb until near the top, and as straight as 
the mast of a ship. A grateful aromatic odor pervaded 
the forest. They are perhaps the superbest cedars in the 
world, and here is enough of them to build a great city. 
How grand, solemn and silent they are, as we walk on the 
sleek carpet of fallen leaves — not a sound coming to our 
ears, save the wind sighing in the boughs far overhead ! 
Said I : *^ Jones Johns, if you had these forests at Hous- 
ton, you would be worth a million ; you would scorn your 
sand- prairies and your sand- banks. You would take to 
putting on airs, Jones Johns, and your severe republican 
simplicity would be corrupted and lost. You would want 
an Empire, Jones Johns, that you might dance attendance 
around the Emperor, as His Grace, the Duke of the 
Cedars." 

" I 'speck I would for a fact," said he, eying the 
grand forest. *^ I would want a grand lady for a Duke- 
ess, and I reckon I would entirely forget poor, honest, 
good Ailsie, the fat washer-girl of Thompson street." 

These mountains are of granitic and basaltic rocks, 
and some are masses of white quartz, presenting the ap- 
pearance of being wrapped in snow. They are literally 
charged with minerals; hardly one, as far as we saw, that 
is not traversed with veins of iron, copper, and silver-lead. 
These veins are from a few inches to thirty feet in width, 
and are true metallic veins that have been shot up from 
the central fires. They penetrate granite, basalt and 
quartz alike, and no doubt came up with these at the time 
of their upheaval, but they are most common in the gran- 
ite and quartz. The silver-lead appears very abundant, 
and masses of it lie scattered along the flanks of the moun- 
tains, and all of it appears to me rich in silver and lead. 



342 TWO THOUSAN-D MILES IN TEXAS OIT HORSEBACK. 

If this chain of mountains, which I take to be the Sierra 
Santiago, shall not prove rich in these metals when ex- 
plored by the mineralogists, I shall be greatly disap- 
pointed. There are numerous veins of quartz, so frothy 
and porous as to resemble pumice-stone, but in these I 
could detect no metal.* 

Our pleasant occupation of searching for the precious 
metals, was brought to an untimely close. We had reached 
the top of a mountain, commanding a wide view, when 
I saw a party of fifteen or twenty men on horseback, rid- 
ing slowly across a plain in a course which would bring 
them near Powell and our horses. Drawing my glass, I 
could not distinctly make out what they were, but they 
presented a suspicious appearance. I handed the glass to 
Johns, telling him to look carefully. In a moment he 
broke out, as he took the glass from his eyes : **' There they 
are for a fact ; them's Injuns ! " Believing they might be 
a party of explorers, I again levelled the glass upon them, 
just as they had risen in a favorable position on a little 
eminence. There was no mistake about it this time. 
They had no dress, but blankets or skins thrown across 
them ; some had guns, and the bows and quivers of others 
were distinctly visible. I said : ^* You are right. Let us 
hasten to John Powell. They will almost surely come to 
that spring for water." We travelled down the mountain 
mnch faster than we went up. A few minutes brought us 
to our horses, which having filled themselves, were lying 
in the grass. John Powell was not visible. We called 
him in a low voice, but got no response. Hurrying around 
we found him snoring in a little thicket, where he had 
gone to hide, in caee any evil disposed person should pass. 

* I brought back several specimens of silver -lead and copper from these moun- 
tains, which competent parties in Austin and St. Louis, who examined them, pro- 
nounced highly valuable. The lands belong to the State, and there is plenty of 
water and game. Prospecting parties, taking a little salt and flour along, would 
fare well. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 343 

Johns seized him by the foot, and giving him a smart jerk, 
exclaimed : " Bounce up — the Injuns are right on us, 
thick !" He sprang up like a buck aroused from his lair, 
grasping his rifle and staring wildly around. We did not 
stop to explain particulars, but saddled our horses as 
quickly as we could, struck out into the first opening we 
saw, and soon buried ourselves in the shadows of the 
mountains. Suspecting that the Indians might trail us, 
we moved as fast as the nature of the ground would per- 
mit, keeping a sharp look-out behind. We were soon in- 
volved in terrible confusion : stumbling painfully over 
heaps of boulders, under precipices that hung far above us, 
in depths that no sun-ray ever penetrated ; squeezing 
through fissures and chasms so narrow that our knees re- 
ceived many a wound. One of these led into a wide field 
of volcanic glass,* swollen into numerous bumps by the 
boulders below, on which our horses' feet slipped and 
clanked at a great rate. At last we stopped in a dark for- 
est of cedar, jammed in a deep depression which seemed 
to have no outlet except the fissure or rent by whicli we 
had entered it. We threw ourselves on the carpet of cedar 
leaves, to rest our horses and determine what next to do. 
We were on a spot which doubtless no soul had ever seen 
before — not even an Indian. 

" Blast them Injuns," said Jones Johns. *^ They have 
run us into a bear's den at last, and maybe we'll never git 
outen it. We'd better staid right there and died game, 
than to starve to death in this black witch-hole." Truly, 
it did' look like a witch-hole, with the solid, perpendicular 
walls of basalt rising in every direction around us, their 
shadows increased by the dark cedar-boughs above our 
heads. We could scarcely get a glimpse of the sky, and 
only so much as that by bending our heads far back and 
looking straight up. 

* Obsidian. 



'344 TWO THOUSAl^D MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

Before our flight from the springs we had not filled 
our canteens, which were without a drop of water. It 
was now after four o'clock, and knowing that if we would 
get out of this black hole before morning, and thus escape 
great suffering for both ourselves and horses, we must do 
■ so at once, we mounted and rode down the narrow forest. 
■It terminated at the entrance to a stony chasm, which 
seemed to come to an abrupt end a few yards ahead ; but, 
entering it, it zig-zagged a long distance, bringing us out 
at last into another forest of cedar. This terminated in a 
deep canyon, running to the south-west, enclosed between 
walls of basaltic rock, five or six hundred feet in perpen- 
dicular height. It was about a half-mile in width, its floor 
level and thick with grass. It is a grand natural pass for 
a railway, and perhaps the only one through the moun- 
tains. We emerged out of the canyon into a beautiful 
rolling country, green as summer, just as night fell on us. 
There was no water, but our horses being gi'eatly worried, 
we stripped them and threw ourselves upon the soft carpet, 
eating nothing for fear of exciting thirst. We judged we 
had travelled forty miles since morning. 

The Indians who had driven us on this terrible jaunt 
through the recesses of the metallic mountains, were doubt- 
less a thieving set from Mexico, entering Texas to steal 
and murder. Had we allowed them to attack us under 
shelter, I have no doubt we would have punished them 
.severely, and whipped them ; but I was not on a fighting 
expedition. Had I been I would have behaved in a very 
different manner. The wolves made us music as usual, 
and we heard some strange, unexplained voices during the 
night ; but we slept grandly. 



VII. 

The Lost Creek. — Silver. — The Lioks of the 
Mountains. 

AT four A. M. we were in the saddle, without break- 
fast, journeying south-west — the country a picture 
of beauty : serene vales, smooth-flowing hills, and occa- 
sionally solitary rounded mountains, or a group of three 
or four together — the vales and hills asleep under a ^reen 
mantle. This is a limestone region, exposing, with the 
prevailing rock, wherever the strata are broken, red or 
black shales, with iron and copper pyrites, and masses of 
selenite transparent as glass. This sometimes appears in 
layers, two or three feet in thickness, between the lime- 
stones, and is also scattered on the surface in the vales. 
I judge the formation to be Permian, x^t nine o'clock 
we reached a pretty creek, flowing south, bordered on the 
west by immense rounded tumuli of granite and basaltic 
crags and precipices — all bare and presenting an extremely 
bleak and desolate scene. We stopped an hour and ate 
ham and crackers — all that our commissary now had. 
Moving down the creek, the bare rocks rose into bare 
mountains, grey and black, very rugged, and suggestive 
of witches and '' hell-broth." At last one of these erected 
its black front across the valley, making a natural dam of 
solid rock, several hundred feet in height and apparently 
a mile or more in thickness. The smart brook, which had 
been singing and bounding all the way over its stony bot- 
tom, here hushed its merry voice in a dark, silent pool 



346 TWO THOUSAIfD MILES 11^ TEXAS 01^ HOESEBACK. 

against the mountain, with steep banks without a de- 
pression on either side. What became of the laughing 
brook ? Engulfed, perhaps forever, in the cavernous 
depths of the rock. 

" Men come and go, but we go on forever," cannot be 
sung of this brook, stranded, cut off and lost in the midst 
of its singing and laughter. It may be that on the op- 
posite side of the mountain it burst forth afresh and ran 
along under the dark precipices, but we did not go to see. 

We here saw many veins of silver and lead, and de- 
tached masses were frequent under the mountains. Veins 
of different colors traversed the mountains in every direc- 
tion. Our richest specimens of silver were obtained here. 
Of iron there is practically no end. We saw blocks of it 
that looked like masses of encrinites compacted together 
and converted into solid iron. We also saw copper ore. 
Indeed, it seems to me that there is no important mineral 
except gold, which these gigantic masses of barren rocks 
may not furnish in paying quantities ; but it would be a 
terrible country to the miner. 

While inspecting the minerals we saw a company of 
deer entering the valley a half mile above us. As we pined 
for fresh meat, I walked up the bluff to get a shot. When 
nearly opposite the deer, I saw a fine buck coming toward 
me down a ravine into which I was about to descend. 
Concealing myself behind a rock, I waited for him, and 
just as he had brought his flank to bear I pulled trigger 
upon him at a distance of about eighty yards. He sprang 
into the air, staggered a few steps and dropped dead. 
Taking his hams, I walked up the ravine to look at an im- 
mense mass of rock, ribboned with veins, which had at- 
tracted my attention. It was almost as sleek as glass, and 
I clambered to the top with difficulty, leaving the hams at 
the base. While pecking at the scoriaceous veins of quartz, 
thinking I might have discovered a gold mine, I was 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 347 

aroused from my dream of wealth by hearing a quick gut- 
tural roar, which seemed to come from some object very 
near me. There was a depression on the top of the rock, 
and into this I sank, slightly projecting my head over the 
rim to take observations. The roar was repeated two or 
three times in quick succession, and immediately there 
seemed to be several objects roaring all together. The 
roaring was precisely like that I heard on the Pecos bluff, 
and I sat still, chock-full of curiosity, mingled with some 
dread. I had not long to wait. Five splendid animals 
leaped into the open ravine about two hundred yards above 
me and walked leisurely along, smelling the ground, and 
then stood still a moment, their heads erect, gazing to the 
front and right and left. One of them opened with a roar 
to which the others immediately responded in concert. 
^^ Lions !" said I to myself ; *^ regular African lions, and 
here will be a battle — five to one ! " They resumed their 
march down the ravine in open view, till, reaching a large 
rounded rock about seventy-five yards from me, they leaped 
nimbly upon it, and there stood gazing in every direction, 
roaring at times deeply and lashing the air with their tails. 
The roaring was invariably begun by one, to which the 
others immediately responded, repeated by each several 
times in succession. I shrank as deeply as I could into the 
depression, leaving only my forehead and eyes above the 
rim and lying quiet as a mouse. I might have killed one 
at least easily, but as I had not started out on a fighting 
expedition, I concluded that I would let them alone, if 
they would do the same with me. Moreover, I desired to 
study their manners. What magnificent and powerful 
beasts they were — so precisely like lions that I could dis- 
tinguish no important difference ! They were tawny like 
the lion, but of a slightly lighter color, and though with 
locks long enough, the heads of the males were less 
shaggy ; the same big head and stiff ears : the same lordly 



348 TWO THOUSAiq^D MILES I:N^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

and leonine aspect ; the same long tail, with the tuft at 
the end. Their roar no one could distinguish from that 
of the true lion. There were two males and three females, 
the latter Avith no mane, and much more fussy and restless 
than their lordly companions.* While their lords stood 
quietly looking around, they were uneasily stepping hither 
and thither, as if inciting them on and eager for adven- 
ture and blood. They did not see me, for no other rea- 
son, I suppose, than that I was considerably elevated above 
them, but they evidently susjoected that there was some- 
thing uncommon in the vicinity. Presently they leaped 
from the rock and walked slowly down the ravine. AVhen 
they reached the point where I had crossed it, they stopped, 
smelling the ground, and roared at a prodigious rate, 
with a multitude of short, quick, deep grunts, at the same 
time lashing the air with their tails. I now expected that 
they would return on my track, and made up my mind for 
a battle, but instead of doing so, after a moment or two 
they continued down the ravine and disappeared behind a 
ledge of stone. I descended at once from the stone, walked 
rapidly up the ravine, and clambered out of it at the 
point where they had leaped into it. Just as I did so I 
heard a great roaring, which caused me to think that they 
had seen me and were in pursuit, but nothing further fol- 
lowed. I concluded they had found the carcass of the 
deer, and were congratulating themselves on the discovery. 
I hurried toward the point where the soldiers were, 
but becoming involved in the mazes of stones, it was quite 
an hour before I reached it. Eelating my adventure, we 
saddled up and rode up the valley with the intention of 
trying the mettle of these powerful animals. Coming to 
the spot where I had slain the deer, there was not a ves- 
tige of him except his horns, hoofs and a few fragments 
of bone. We looked around some time, but discovered 
nothing, and hallooed, but received no response. The 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 349 

beasts had retired to their recesses or quietly watched us 
from the inaccessible crags. 

The zoologists say that the lion is not native outside of 
Asian and African wilds ; but if this is not a lion, pray 
tell me, ye scientists, what is it ? It is said in the terse 
Latin that " no like is the same ;"* but it cannot easily be 
disputed that two " sames" are at least of the same stock. 
Say what ye choose, I write this down as a true American 
lion ; for my eyes have carefully seen, and my ears have 
carefully heard. He is not uncommon in the deep moun- 
tainous wilds of Western Texas, but is rarely seen, because 
he does not venture out of them except at night, when 
like his African and Asiatic kinsman, he goes abroad on 
his prowling and destructive expeditions. They call him 
the Mountain or Mexican lion, and he is held as the most 
dangerous and terrible of all American beasts ; but I have 
seen none who have ever encountered him in battle. They 
say that he is fond of horse-flesh and often descends upon 
the plains, four or five in company, and makes terrible 
slaughter among the herds, f 

The Pass.— The Abysmal Creek and Fall of 

Bruin. 
We rode back to the place of the death of the brook ; 
thence turned west, and soon entered a smooth pass that 

* Nullnm simile est idem. 

+ After my arrival in Presidio del Norte, I made particular inquiry about these 
animals and was told that they were the Black Tiger-better known in Mexico 
as the American Lion. Their zoological name is probably Felis discolor. Ihey 
are much larger than the Jaguar or Felis onca, generally known as the Mexican 
Lion in Texas, and are also much more ferocious. It is said to be an exceed- 
ingly easy matter to get a battle out of them, they putting themselves to little or 
no trouble to avoid it. They have no true mane like the lion, but the hair about 
the head and neck of the males is long and bristly, and this is always erected 
when they are excited, producing much of the appearance of a true leonine mane. 
They are much less common in the Western Texas wilds than the Fehs onm, 
but I was told that thev are fast multiplying. The Mexicans say they are mi- 
grating northward from Central America, following the mountain chains, and 
are never seen out of them. It is probable that it was fortunate for me that I 
did not fire upon them. 



350 TWO TH0USAI5"D MILES IN TEXAS OIT HOESEBACK. 

opened a long way through the otherwise impracticable 
mountains, which on either side grew constantly more lofty, 
desolate and jagged as we rode on. So perfect a roadway 
is this, that it is impossible not to see in it design of the 
Architect. He maketh the way smooth into these terrible 
stones that are rich with his precious metals. In this vale 
He has walked — the sublime, omnipresent Personal God, 
and the great hills danced for joy at His presence ! Sub- 
lime Inconceivable ! how can we address Thee, when in 
contemplation of Thee, the mind is overwhelmed and lost 
in a glory of wonder and unspeakable thought ? 

After two hours, the pass brought us to a creek, with 
water as bright as dew-drops and so cold that it seemed to 
issue from iced fountains. Bright, singing little creek, 
are there snow-clad mountains on your border which repay 
you with iced juleps for the song you sing them as you go ? 
Precipitous, walls and black crags, insurmountable to all 
without wings, here made further advance westward im- 
possible ; and we turned south down the spai"1vling creek, 
which now sang along green vales, and now hushed its 
voice in chasms so dark and deep that we could neither 
hear nor see it. Sometimes the jutting stones of the 
mountains pressed us so near the chasms that there was 
barely passage for our horses, and we dismounted and led 
them cautiously by the brink. At the mouth of one of the 
chasms I entered on foot, and walked some distance on 
the stone floor of the creek. The steep walls towered two 
hundred feet or more above me, and it was so narrow that 
I could easily touch both walls at once. The solid rock 
had been rent in twain to give passage to the creek. Even 
in this deep pit were numerous metallic veins, from which 
ores of silver, lead and copper stuck out in chunks. 

Emerging out of the chasm in the black gorge into 
which it opened, we had made but little headway, when a 
black bear, startled by the ringing of our horses' feet upon 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 351 

the stones, sprang out of the creek bed and clambered has- 
tily, but in a lubberly way up the mountain, disappearing 
in an overhanging thicket of cedar. I threw my bridle 
to one of the soldiers, and leaping to the ground, crept 
stealthily in pursuit. I sprang from a projecting rock into 
the cedars, and there lay Bruin, crouched before me, not 
ten feet away. Taken by surprise, he reared on his hind 
le^s, stared at me a second with a strange, intelligent look, 
and then turned for flight. As he did so, I fired with my 
rifle, the ball giving him a severe wound on the left shoul- 
der. As if conscious now that there was no safety in 
flight, he turned abruptly upon me and began a rapid ad- 
vance. I stepped back to balaftce myself, and the next 
moment crushed his skull with a ball, and he fell dead 
within an arm's length of me. Suppose my gun had missed 
fire ! I shudder to think of it. Probably with one effort 
he would have hurled me over the precipice two hundred 
feet into the stony gorge below, or crushed my head in his 
mouth. Feeling him and seeing that he was gloriously 
fat, I called to the soldiers for help, and soon Jones Johns 
stood beside me. '' Golly I he is a rouser," said he. We 
judged him to be about five hundred pounds weight. 
Cutting off a good supply of his choicest parts, we descended 
into the gorge, leaving the rest for the lions of the moun- 
tains. 

Down black gorges, down verdant vales, along dizzy 
precipices and dark chasms, through sombre forests of 
cedar, under the shadow of the mountains, we rode and 
rode : until, while the sun was yet glancing over the flanks 
and between the crags of the mountains, we came sud- 
denly to a halt on the banks of a great yellow river, roll- 
ing rapidly and silently below us. It was the Rio Bravo 
del Norte, and we stood upon the uttermost soil of Uncle 
Sam, the rolling plains and mountains of Mexico rising 
beyond it. We dismounted, hobbled our horses on a little 



352 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

plot of rich grass, kindled a rousing fire of cedar, and 
soon ate a great bait of delicious, dripping bear-meat and 
venison, reinforced by liard-tack and washed down with 
strong, black coffee.* When night fell we slept pro- 
foundly, paying no attention to the hungry wolves, who 
came to solicit a share of our stores. 

* Charles Hallock, Esq., editor of Forest and Stream, in his admirable work 
on the game birds, fishes and animals of America, " The Sportsman's Gazetteer," 
ridicules the flesh of the bear— saj'ing they pamper on grasshoppers, grubs and 
beetles, and are unfit to be eaten. Had he been with me on this trip, he would 
erase that passage, or at all events, make an exception of the Texas bear. I judge 
he has never eaten a Texas bear. In Texas they feed mostly on pecans, rich 
acorns, and golden honey which they gather in the caves. Texas bear meat is 
simply glorious, whether fresh or baconed. At least, that is the testimony of 
one who has eaten many a pot of i^ and always with relish. As Texas surpasses 
every other land, why should not its bears surpass all other bears ? 



VIII. 

Perplexity that is Providentially Eelieved. — A 
KiDE IN Mexico. 

IN the morning while we ate breakfast we watched sun- 
rise in the mountains : first, a flood of light, like a 
pyramid of fire, streaming upward from the east ; then 
pouring through the crevices and fissures, and at last when 
the great orb rose to the crest of the mountain, and seemed 
to rest upon it, a grand outburst of glory all about us. 
Then we sat on the bank of the river and smoked our 
pipes, and watched the crystal waters of the creek fading 
away in the golden-colored Bravo. The air was laden 
with the fragrance of the cedars. A wilder, more secluded 
nook than this was never seen. 

A great perplexity now fell upon us : we were utterly 
confused and lost, and knew not which way to turn. We 
desired to reach the Mexican town of Presidio del Norte, 
but with the lights before us, it was impossible to tell 
whether it lay below or above us. At last while debating 
the perplexing question, we heard the tramp of horses' 
feet above us on the river, and turning, we saw a horse 
coming toward us, with a black, ragged object on his back 
bearing a long gun across the saddle. Neither rider nor 
horse had yet perceived us. ^* Boys, that is an Indian," 
said I. " No," said Jones Johns, ^' that is a black Mexican. 
Injuns wears no hats." "Then," said I, "let us capture 
that fellow and make him show us the way." We concealed 
ourselves under the bank, and the object rode within thirty 



354 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

feet of us, halting when he perceived our smouldering fire, 
and looking around in a suspicious way. " Now, boys," 
said I, ** is our time." 

With that we sprang to our feet and made a dash for 
the Aztec. He turned his horse to fly, but I brought my 
gun down upon him and called to him to halt. At the 
same time the soldiers, who could talk a little Mexican, 
leveled their guns upon him also, crying amigos ! and 
adding that if he did not stop he would be shot. He evi- 
dently believed the threat was in earnest, and seeing little 
hope of escape with so many rifles upon him, turned and 
surrendered. His lips were white, and he shook with ex- 
citement from head to foot. The soldiers explaining to 
him what we wanted, he grew calm, but shook his head 
and said he would not take us to Presidio. I told the 
soldiers to tell him he must do it or be shot — that we were 
in no mood to be denied so reasonable a request. When 
he heard this he looked much distressed, as if we had 
interfered with some prior arrangement ; but finally — 
'^ Bueno .'" said he, '^ go lo liare.^^ He then pointed up the 
river, and we mounted our horses and followed him. 

This old fellow was probably sixty years of age, but 
there was that about him which indicated infinite tough- 
ness. He was tall and lean, sharp visaged, had a nose like 
an eagle's beak, and was of a dark copper color. His 
eye looked sly and wicked. His dress was entirely of 
buckskin, except that he had a very dirty, ragged blanket 
thrown over his shoulders. His shoes were moccasins, 
and his hat was the common Mexican sombrero, with an 
enormous rattlesnake in effigy coiled around it. From 
his hard and weather-beaten appearance I judged he had 
not slept in a house for years. We asked him what he was 
doing in this lonely country. ''Hunting," said he, in 
Spanish. He then asked what we were doing. We told 
him we were also hunting — hunting Indians, and Jones 



TWO THOUSAND MILES Iiq^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 355 

Johns added that we had encountered a flock of them the 
day before and killed six. At this I observed a nervous 
shrug of the old fellow's shoulders, and this, in connection 
with his wild and sinister expression and appearance, left 
little doubt in my mind that he was a brigand, who lived 
principally among the Indians and piloted them on their 
raids into Texas. I thought it likely that he belonged to 
the party we had lately seen.* 

He led us up the river several miles, and then rode into 
it, we following in file. The bottom was sandy, the cur- 
rent strong, and the water sometimes nearly up to our 
seats. The Bravo, or Rio Grande, as it is usually called 
by the Americans, averages where we rode along it about 
three hundred feet in breadth, and looks inflamed like the 
Red River, the Canadian and Arkansas, which rise nearly 
in the same region. I tasted its water and found it sweet 
and decidedly cold. The old Mexican told us there were 
many places where it could be forded, but in the moun- 
tains it was not always easy to get out, on account of the 
steepness of the banks. It is a grand river, and with dredg- 
ing could be made navio^able manv hundred miles above 
its mouth — at least as high up as the mouth of the Pecos. 

On the Mexican side it was rough and mountainous, 
the same as on the Texan, with little or no valley, and 
'uninhabited. Our guide led us ten or twelve miles over a 
high rolling prairie, with many mesquite trees, and rich 
in grass. At last we reached a large road, coming from 
the heart of Mexico, leading north-east. Here the old 
Mexican halted and said : " This will take you to Presidio 
before sunset. I can go no further." I gave him a ten- 
dollar gold piece, at which he smiled and said : ^* Muchas 
gracias. senor ; Dies tenga nstedes a sus ma7iosy\ He 

* When I spoke of this old fellow at Presidio, they said my impreBsion of him 
was doubtless correct. 

t " Many thanks, senor ; may God hold you in his hands." 



356 TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

turned and rode away over the prairie in the direction 
whence we had come. 

As we rode on, the country was so like West Texas 
that it would be quite impossible to distinguish them 
apart, and we could hardly feel ourselves in a foreign 
land. In the evening, however, we rode into an army of 
diminutive jackasses with huge piles of mesquite wood, 
bigger than themselves, fastened to their backs and flanks 
with cords. By the side of each walked a Mexican boy, 
frequently pounding him with a club, and yelling — '-'■'burro 
carajo ! " This scene was totally strange, and only then 
did I appreciate, that I was in a country over which our 
flag does not float. We asked the little fellows how far to 
Presidio, and about a dozen responded, with much sweet- 
ness of voice : *' Tres millas, senores.''^ They ceased their 
gabbling and carajos, and tried to behave like little gen- 
tlemen while we were among them. They were all quite 
handsome, though illy clad and not shod at all, and were 
from a reddish-white to a bright yellow color. None of 
them were black, which causes me to believe that the 
blackness of many of the Mexicans is of slow growth and 
the effect of climate. About sunset we rode into the city 
and asked for a hotel, and were told that there was none in 
the place. At last, however, we secured a room, with no 
furniture except two long benches, and a yard for our 
horses. We bought provender for our horses, and did our 
own cooking. At night we spread our blankets on the 
floor, which was the naked, but clean-swept earth. 



DIVISION VII. 



I. 



Presidio Del Norte. — Asses ai^d Goats. 

AFTER breakfast I walked abroad, leaving the soldiers 
to their liberty. Presidio has a population of three 
thousand or less, and is built entirely of one-story adobe 
houses, all so much alike that they seem to have dropped 
from the same mould. It is impossible for a place to be 
more of a oneness than this ; and yet, to the American 
stranger, it is a place in which he can pass a day or two 
with interest. It seemed to me as I walked along its 
streets, that I had slid back into the past at least a thou- 
sand years. There is nothing whatever of the city of the 
present age here, either in the architecture or the people ; 
no bustling commerce, no whirr of machinery, no rattling 
carriages or rumbling wagons. The diminutive and pa- 
tient jackass, that can neither be coaxed nor driven out of 
a slow walk, supplies all the transportation that is needed ; 
and the people walk leisurely about — not with the appear- 
ance of having nothing to do, but rather that they have 
ample time to do it in, and it were as well done a month 
hence as to-day. They appear contented and even happy, 
as if well pleased with what the gods have given, and per- 
fectly willing to leave to them the morrow. I doubt if 
they have any distinct idea of a verb in the future tense. 
If to be happy be the aim of our life, I see no reason why 



358 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

any one should complain of the Mexicans ; for they seem 
to fill that condition as completely as any people I ever 
saw — at least, they do in Presidio. Perhaps they ridicule 
the restless bustling and aspirations of the Americans, as 
much as we do their indolent and careless sleepy-head. 

There are a great many shops here, perhaps more than 
in an American town of the same population, but the 
stocks of a great majority of them are so inconsiderable 
that to supply one jackass load would deplete a whole 
block. Yet on these small stocks, averaging not more 
than fifty to one hundred dollars in value, the Mexican 
merchant will support himself, a large wife and a host of 
children, and at the same time sustain an excellent credit. 
Goats are more numerous here than the people, and the air 
is redolent with their strange, coolish smell. These ani- 
mals are a very important part of the community ; indeed, 
without them Presidio would probably dissolve and fall to 
pieces. It costs nothing to feed them, and they supply 
the Mexican merchant with abundance of rich milk, and a 
tender kid for meat whenever desired ; tlius saving him 
from touching his capital invested in commerce. Next to 
the goat the ass is very numerous, insomuch tliat one can 
hardly meet a lady promenading the street, but that one 
or more asses will be found walking by her side. These 
creatures are also very important factors in society here, 
costing nothing to take care of them, and performing all 
the duties that are performed by horse and wagon in Ameri- 
can communities. If a Mexican merchant has a few goats 
and a wife to milk them, and an ass and a six-year old boy 
to drive him, and fifty dollars capital in merchandise, 
with his frugal habits he should grow rich ; for to the free 
gifts of the goats, the ass and boy add fuel without cost, 
and if perchance more is gathered than is needed in the 
household, he can rapidly increase his capital in merchan- 
dise by selling fuel to his neighbors who have not an ass 



TWO THOUSAI^D MILES IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 359 

and a boy. Thus it may be said that the whole fabric of 
Presidio rests on goats and asses, and if they were taken 
away, total disintegration would result. That it is no bad 
basis to rest upon, is shown by the fact that all are con- 
tented and happy. People are apt to resemble in many 
respects the animals they have most to do with, or are 
most dependent upon, and I am unable to decide whether 
the Mexicans are more like the ass or the goat ; but they 
are as thorough a mixture of the two as it is possible to 
conceive. The Mexicans even say of themselves that they 
are 7nuy caprote,^ and in Presidio they have a distinct odor 
of a goat. 

How THE YixE Flourishes. 

There are two or three stores here of some size, one 
kept by a young American who buried himself in this re- 
mote place to make money, and has succeeded in doing so. 
He says money is plentiful, and I could hardly compre- 
hend it until I took a short ride in the valley of the Kio 
Grande, above the city. It is a field of wealth, two to 
three miles in breadth, extending many miles, all irrigated 
by the rich waters of the river. Here they grow^ great 
crops of corn, wheat and barley, which they sell at high 
prices, mostly to the contractors who supply the Mexican 
and U. S. military posts on either side of the river. Here 
also are great vineyards, as rich as tliose of old Spain, and 
wine and brandy-making is a principal industry. These 
latter find their way all over Mexico, and are not uncom- 
mon on the boards of gentlemen of Western Texas. This 
wine, which is sold at a dollar a gallon or less, is much like 
still Catawba, and as for the brandy, it is infinitely prefer- 
able to that which is usually sold in the United States as 
French brandy. It is very strong, but there is a peculiar 
fruity flavor about it that is pleasant, and one can drink it 

* Very goaty. 



360 TWO THOUSAXD MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 

with full confidence that there is nothing in it that is 
spurious. The finest onions in the world also grow here. 
They are so excellent that one can eat them almost as we 
do an apple in the United States. There are pear trees 
here two to three feet in circumference. The rain-fall 
does not exceed twelve inches a year, and nearly all of it 
falls in one or two showers, and yet with irrigation they 
have all these blessings in abundance ! What surpassing 
glory would be that of Western Texas, if they only had the 
enterprise of the Mexican tliere to irrigate their valleys, by 
building a few dams and digging a few ditches ! 

These people cultivate the ground precisely as the first 
inhabitants of the world did. They merely scratch the 
surface with a wooden plow, and sometimes they work 
whole fields with no other instrument than a hand-hoe. 
The American merchant at Presidio tells me that he has 
tried in vain to introduce American implements of tillage : 
the absurd Mexicans simply laughed at the heavy Ameri- 
can weapons. Fortunately the soil is a soft, sandy loam, 
very docile even to their poor implements. 

They tell me that this city is over two liundred years 
old and that its history is romantic. It sits in the midst 
of a vast solitude in every direction, except a narrow 
strip running a considerable distance up the river. 
All else is Indians, lions, jaguars, cougars, wolves, et 
cetera. 

The Mexican Snob. — How Greatness Feels. 

After dinner, while smoking my puro, a neatly dressed 
Mexican gentleman, with something of a sprightly and 
even distinguished air, entered my apartment. He could 
speak English tolerably, and asked me if he had the honor 
to address so-and-so, calling my name ? On assuring him 
that he had my name right, he gave me his own, and im- 
mediately proceeded to address me, in what sounded like 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IJf TEXAS Oi^ HORSEBACK. 361 

a set speech. He said that he had long been acquainted 
with my fame as a soldier, statesman and scholar, and was 
prond to pay his respects in person. He gave me a warm 
welcome to Mexico ; assured me that all Mexicans would 
do the same, wherever I should go in their territory, and 
expressed the hope that I was pleased with the country 
as far as I had seen it. The gentlemen of Presidio 
were anxious to pay their respects to me in pubUc, and 
if I would do him the honor to appoint the time, he would 
only be too proud to introduce them to me in the rooms 
of the Alcalde. He bea'sred that I would accord him that 
honor and pleasure. 

I at first thought the man was lunatic, and was about 
to cut him short in his oratory, when, regarding him more 
closely, I thought I observed in him a Mexican snob upon 
whom some one had played a trick. As I had often seen 
such fellows and been amused at their laughable ways 
around great men, I concluded to humor the joke, and 
therefore made a speech to him with considerable dignity, 
putting on, too, an air of great sapience. I assured him 
that I felt infinite pleasure in receiving his call. To him 
who has labored for his country and mankind, there is 
nothing so sweet as the evidences that his labors have re- 
ceived recognition ; and it is indeed very sweet to me to 
know that I have made friends even in foreign lands. It 
is a great incentive to other work, and the recollection of 
this recognition and visit from you to-day, sir, will sweeten 
my future labors. (He bowed with humility.) Horace, 
in his assurance of immortality, says that even he that 
drinks of the Danube shall read and praise him. How 
sweet it must be to him, in the abode of the great spirits 
whither he has gone, to know that even his imagination 
could not measure the boundary of kis fame ; for he that 
drinks of the Rio Grande and the Conchas also reads and 
praises him ! I fancy, sir, that I feel to-day something of 



362 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS OH HORSEBACK. 

this pleasure which Horace must feel, when I receive the 
assurance that he who drinks of the Kio Grande and Con- 
chas knows and esteems me. (Another bow, accompanied 
with a smile of approbation.) But I should be too vain 
to receive this honor as entirely personal. No small part 
of it, I know, sir, is intended for the great republic from 
which I come. It is an evidence of the mutual friendship 
that should characterize the relations of the two great 
American republics. Side by side, in the closest amity, let 
them be the example by which tyrants shall tremble, and 
the oppressed of all nations be made happy. (A very low 
bow.) I then stated that while I had a high appreciation 
of the honor, I must decline the public reception in the 
halls of the Alcalde ; that I had particular reasons for de- 
siring to travel incogjiito and in an exceedingly private 
way. It would afford me great pleasure to take every 
citizen of Presidio by the hand, but under the circum- 
stances, which he would appreciate, I must deny myself 
the pleasure. 

We then took each other by the hand, with great cor- 
diality, he receiving " beatitude past utterance," and I 
feeling no little ashamed of myself, but suppressing it 
well. He begged that he might at least have the honor 
of attending me through the city, to show me the points 
of interest, and give me such insight as he could into the 
industries of the people. To this I consented, and we 
walked out together ; he talking incessantly and appearing 
the happiest man I had ever seen. I felt myself somewhat 
distended with pride at being able to bestow such exquisite 
happiness ; but more than once my pride came near being 
lost in the sense of the ridiculous. For the first time in 
my life I felt how greatness feels, and was not displeased 
with the sensation. ,He led me everywhere, and I could 
not fail to notice that wherever he saw an unusual assem- 
blage of men or women, he would find some excuse to 



TWO THOUSAND MILES I^T TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 363 

take me in the midst of it, and his attentions at such 
places were quite overwhelming. I went round with him 
a long time, until I grew tired ; but he showed no ten- 
dency to leave me to my peace. At last his company be- 
came irksome, and yet I could not make him see it in any 
genteel or oblique way. His perception of decency was 
utterly lost in the happiness of being allowed to pay me 
attentions and show himself off around me. I had made 
up my mind to tell him that he had been deceived, and 
that I was simply a very plain citizen, unknown to fame ; 
but on reflection I thought this would be cruel and hurt 
his feelings too severely. Finally I got rid of him under 
the pretence that I had some very important writing to do, 
and would be happy to see him on another occasion. Thus 
I felt the annoyance, also, to which great men are subject, 
and thought it was of the most poignant sort. It is dis- 
tressing not to be left to one's privacy when one desires it. 
This man did some writing for the great man of the 
city, the Alcalde, and had formerly, as he told me, been 
connected in some way with the Governor of Chihuahua. 
He had thus had some inkling of greatness, and having 
no light of his own, was happy to shine by the light of 
others. He was said to be the happiest of all men when 
allowed to put on airs at the feet of the great, and be the 
usher by whom others approached them. He was not 
without intelligence, and very inoffensive, though some- 
times said to be supercilious, when around great men, to 
those whom he considered not rich, and extremely patron- 
izing to those known to be so. His attentions to me 
originated from my soldiers, who, probably to raise their 
own importance, had spread it around that I was a great 
ex-general and scholar, travelling privately for my health, 
and that the Commander-in-Chief of the United States 
had detailed them to accompany me, as a special guard 
of honor. 



364 TWO THOUSAND MILES IJ^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 

Peestdio at JN'ight. — A Fandango. 

At night Presidio resounded with the thrumming of 
guitars, the screeching of accordeons, the braying of asses 
and the bleating of goats. The whole population seemed 
bent on music. I was told by an American trader on a 
visit to the city, that there would be a great fandango, and 
if I felt curious to see one he would go with me. I felt 
curious, and at ten o'clock, we walked together into the 
chaparral, a half mile from the city, and there found a large 
number of men and women dancing in the open air, to 
harps and violins. At intervals they would suspend the 
dancing and give themselves up to eating chile con came — 
a hash of dried beef, furiously hot with red-pepper — at 
the numerous booths erected about the lights, or prome- 
nade in the chaparral. The men were attired but little 
better than usual, but the women were dressed m pretty 
costumes of bright red or white, Avhich barely reached their 
knees, with tight-fitting stockings and slippers. When the 
dress was red, the stockings were usually white, and vice 
versa. They invariably wore ornaments of flowers about 
their heads, and many of them were very pretty. Some- 
times they would join in little groups and siug to the 
guitarj the music being ballads or melting songs of love. 
The country fandangos are said to be innocent, as much as 
rustic amusements generally are, but in the cities they have 
apparently been corrupted, and seem to me but a mere 
convenience for sin. They are said often to end in drunk- 
enness, debauchery, and sometimes in murder. They are 
universal throughout Mexico, and wherever the Mexicans 
are numerous. In cities they are not attended by the bet- 
ter class of either males or females. There was nothing 
boisterous in this one as long as 1 remained to see it. 



11. 



Among the Prospectors. — The Ohij^ati Mountain's. 

AT this point my westward journey terminated, and at 
early morning I was in the saddle, accompanied by 
a government contractor to furnish the troops at Fort 
Davis with flour, and a gentleman from St. Louis inter- 
ested in some wines, and who was establishing smelting 
works in Presidio. We crossed into Texas and rode north 
over a fine stock country, but uninhabited, until we reached 
the Chinati Mountains, the loftiest and most rugged group 
I had yet encountered. Their altitude is five thousand feet, 
and they consist mostly of basaltic rocks, but many of them 
are capped and partly flanked with Cretaceous rocks, show- 
ing that they were upheaved at the close of that formation, 
or during the Tertiary. Wherever a spot with soil can be 
found in these mountains, there is a magnificent growth 
of cedar ; enough to tie all the railroads in Texas. After 
resting at a large spring at the foot of the mountains, we 
walked into them to see the metallic veins. They were 
very numerous. Iron seemed without end, and copper was 
very abundant, and we visited several veins of silver lead, 
some of them twenty feet wide, of length and depth un- 
known. The St. Louis gentleman had opened some of 
these a few feet, and sendins: the ores to St. Louis for 
analysis, had received the following returns : 



No. 1. 13 oz. value per ton of ore $16.80 

No.7. 15oz. " " 19.30 

No.8. 59oz. " " 'i'6.28 

N0.9.2OOZ. ♦* " 25.85 



366 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

This is the value of the silver alone, for in this remote 
region, lead cannot pay for its transportation, and no 
account is taken of it. Another specimen of ore from a 
vein which I did not see, was reported by the same 
chemists,* as follows : 

Silver per ton of ore $144.80 

Lead from same ore 34.25 

Specimens of the copper ore were reported by these 
chemists to yield twenty per cent of metallic copper. All 
these ores are greatly abundant, yet not more so than I 
saw in other mountains of Presidio County, and the seeing 
of them only conGrmed the conviction that I had before, 
that this region must inevitably develop one of the great- 
est mineral wealths in the world. The very same rocks in 
Mexico, just across the Rio Grande in Chihuahua, pour 
out millions of silver and copper annually, and there is no 
doubt in my mind that these will do the same. 

The sole occupants of these mountains, besides the 
occasional miners, are a few shepherds who herd their 
flocks along its flanks, and stand guard over them night 
and day, to save them from the wolves and lions of the 
mountains. From the latter particularly, the faithful 
shepherd-dog would be slim protection. 

Leaving the two gentlemen, I bore again northwest- 
ward with my soldiers, over a rolling, treeless plain, with 
ranges of mountains in sight in every direction, until a 
little before night-fall we reached a fine creek, with noble, 
irrio^able vallev, flowinsr from the north toward Presidio. 
This is Providence Creek, and so rich are its lands and 
beautiful its water that it well deserves its name. Here 
we liave willow and cotton-wood. The grass is rich, and 
we lodged upon it for the night. 

* Chauvenet and Blair, St. Louis. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 367 



III. 



Did not sleep well : wolves exceedingly clamorous and 
bold : rose twice during the night to discharge shot at 
them and drive them off. Heard the roar of the lion or 
black jaguar from the cliffs that overlooked our encamp- 
ment. In the saddle at early dawn. Rode thirty-five 
miles up the beautiful valley and encamped. Saw many 
veins of iron and copper crossing the creek bed ; also 
vems of quartz with indications of gold. Agates and 
opals abundant ; gathered several of the most beautiful I 
ever saw. 



13 



ly. 



A Supper Lost. — The Boast of the Cowaed. 

ALTHOUGH we had seen many deer during the day, 
we had not killed any, and were without fresh meat. 
After our horses were turned on the grass, I walked up 
the creek, hoping for a successful shot. Ahout a mile up 
I reached a point where the creek forks, and saw a num- 
ber of deer feeding on the plot between the two streams. 
I crept unobserved up the bed of one of these, and 
leisurely selecting the one that seemed best, I brought him 
down at two hundred yards. The others were so aston- 
ished that they merely jumped at the crack of the rifle, 
and then stopped to stare around. When they saw me, 
however, they bounded away post-haste. I took the hams 
and part of the ribs of the fallen one, and was moving 
straight down the valley when something impelled me to 
look back. As I did so I saw two black objects suddenly 
dip behind the cliff that looked over the valley from the 
north. I stood still a moment, watclii ng, but saw them no 
more. I felt at once that I hud been watched by In- 
dians, who were trying to surround me by stealing down 
the bed of the two streams, and had left the two on the 
cliff to watch and signal to them my movements. With 
this conviction I hurried to the nearest creek, to avoid ex- 
posing myself on the narrow tongue between the two, and 
bounded across it almost with the speed of a buck, expect- 
ing every second to receive a shower of arrows. When in 
the open valley where nothing could steal upon me unseen, 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IK^ TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 369 

and too far from either cliff or creek-bed to be killed 
by arrows, I stopped to observe, but saw nothing. Still I 
believed Indians were about, and when in camp told the 
soldiers what I had seen and my suspicions. As we already 
had fire blazing and coffee boiling, we concluded we would 
cook some of our meat and then steal away in the dark, 
which was coming upon us as each of us sat down to roast 
a big chunk of venison. 

Ten minutes after this, while I was enjoying a strong 
cup of black coffee, one of our horses snorted violently. 
^•' There they are, boys," said I, " trying to set us afoot. Let's 
to the rescue ! " Each seized his rifle and ran for the horses, 
which with heads erect, were staring toward the hills that 
came down to the valley from the west. As I reached my 
horse I saw something indistinctly slipping along rapidly 
toward the shadow of the hills. It might be Indian or it 
might be wolf — so I raised my gun and fired upon it. 
John Powell saw the same object or a similar one, and also 
let fly with his rifle. A few moments afterward we heard 
a cry or squall like that of a cougar from the hills in the 
direction we had fired, to which a similar voice immedi- 
ately responded from a point a little lower down. 

" Thar now ! " said Jones Johns with a laugh ; 
'^nothing but a squalling painter to kick up all this 
muss." 

"Perhaps so," said I ; '^but let us be on our guard. 
These painters are sometimes dangerous." 

*' Ef that was a painter," said John Powell, *^ that I 
shot at — ef he didn't walk straight up like a man you may 
get my good eye. Injuns can play painter, but painters 
can't play Injun." 

I thought John Powell's reasoning was good, and be- 
sides, if the object I shot at had not looked suspiciously I 
would not have shot at it. It did not seem to me prone 
enough for wolf or ^^ painter." I therefore ordered that 



370 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 

we take our horses and stake them within a few feet of us, 
with saddles on ; which was done. 

We then sat by the fire watching our fat venison, which 
dripped gravy and sent forth a delicious odor, occasionally 
turning it on the sticks. *^What is that? Didn't you 
hear something say ^ ker-flip ? ' " said Jones Johns. I 
became attentive, and the next moment heard a distinct 
whirr through the air, as of some diminutive feathered 
creature passing rapidly overhead. "It is some small 
night-bird," said I. A second later — 

"Ah ! " said Jones Johns, jumping up ; "here's your 
night-bird ! Here it is for a fact ! " 

An arrow, feathered and painted, had stuck into the 
ground immediately in front of him, which, had it been 
aimed a single point higher, would have struck him square 
in the belly. We all Jumped up at sight of this fearful 
apparition, and as we did so, others dropped around us in 
quick succession, all coming from the opposite side of the 
creek. There was a long stone three or four feet high, 
lying a few paces from the fire, and I told the soldiers to 
gather their horses quickly, and let us conceal ourselves 
behind it. We did so in a moment, and there sat as still 
as mice. The arrows continued to drop around the fire a 
few seconds, but ceased when the lurking Indians saw that 
we had left. We had the mortification of seeing our veni- 
son take fire and burn- to soot. Everything was silent, and 
I hoped that the Indians, thinking that they had fright- 
ened us away, would venture within the light of the fire 
and give us a chance to return their compliment with 
our rifles. But they were too sharp for that. 

Fully a half hour passed, and we heard nothing, not 
even a stealthy tread, and were debating in a low voice the 
propriety of mounting and moving on, when an owl broke 
loose with his wild hoot apparently just across the creek. 
This was followed by another owl and another, until there 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 371 

was a regular uproar of owl-laughter. This ceased, and 
then a lonesome wolf projected a melancholy wail over the 
valley, whicli was answered by another and another until 
we had a regular wolf serenade again. This ceased, and 
then a distressed panther began to cry, as if suffering the 
most terrible misery — responded to at once by another and 
another, till the air seemed literally burdened with the 
singular notes. When this ceased, after a short interval 
of quiet, turkeys gobbled, owls hooted, wolves howled, and 
panthers squealed and screamed all together, making the 
most infernal medley I had ever heard. This was followed 
by several tremendous whoops, and noises that seemed made 
by slapping the mouth rapidly with the hand while halloo- 
ing. I thought that we conld creep on these rascals and give 
them a volley with our Winchesters, but knowing tlieir 
wily habits, I was afraid they might steal our horses while 
we were trying to shoot them. But feeling somewhat in- 
sulted as well as amused by their infernal noises, which they 
made in derision of us, I told Jones Johns, who had the 
chest of a bull and the lungs of a steamboat, to break out 
as loud as he could, with the most unearthly voice that he 
could make, and that Powell and myself would assist him. 
He did so, raising undoubtedly the most ungodly sound 
that ever came from a human tliroat, to which Powell and 
myself responded with the best that we could do, as soon 
as he had finished. We kept this up for some time, and 
if there was less method in our medley, I am satisfied that 
we raised a greater fuss than the Indians. I have no doubt 
that for a time at least, they hung their heads in chagrin. 
It seemed to us from their report that there were about 
six or seven of tliem. 

After we had suspended, all was silent for a while, as 
if the Indians were considering what sort of noise to make 
next. Finally, a lusty fellow yelled out in a loud voice : 
" Americanos ! — Carajos I — Cobardes ! " which he repeated 



372 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OJf HORSEBACK. 

two or three times. I told Jones Johns to call him a gut 
in Spanish, and to invite him to call over to see us, as we 
had something good for him. Johns did so, in an exceed- 
ingly braggart and provoking style. The Indian responded 
with some words of very beastly signification, and as I 
thought that we could tolerably well make out Avhere they 
stood on the prairie, I ordered a volley, and we all fired at 
once, two or three times in rapid succession. 

Profound peace now reigned for a few moments, while 
the Indians were rapidly changing their base ; for when 
they again reported themselves, they were evidently about 
three hundred yards further away, and apparently on the 
bluff of the valley. They opened with another medley of 
gobbler, and wolf and panther, mixed with carajos and 
other dirty Spanish words ; but we paid them no attention. 
^^Now, boys," said I, "it is time for us to go off and get 
some sleep, since we can't get a battle out of those cow- 
ards." We went to the fire and contemplated with sorrow 
the soot of our fine venison, but there was a pot of coffee, 
and we had a great enjoyment of it. By the light of a 
live coal, I saw that it was after eleven o'clock. We rode 
up the valley two hours, and then went into a dark nook 
and slept. The stars w^ere gloriously brilliant, and ere we 
closed our eyes an extraordinary meteor passed above us. 
going south, with a great light and a hissing and crack- 
ling sound. It seemed not very high overhead, and was 
sloping downward ; so that I have no doubt that another 
remarkable mass of rock was added to this remarkable 
region. Its apparent magnitude w^as many times that of 
the full moon, and it seemed a great ball of fire, with little 
appearance of a streamer behind it.* 

* Some of the most remarkable meteoric stones known in the United States, 
have fallen in Texas. One in Yale College, weighing one thousand six hundred 
and twentj'-five pounds, came from the Staked Plain , as did one in the Geologi- 
cal Eooms in Austin, of several hundred pounds weight. It is remarkable that 
these masses do not fall except in lofty or rugged regions abounding in metals. 
Has a meteorite ever been known to fall in a low Tertiary country'? Sach an 
instance is not within my knowledge. 



y. 



Departure from Friends. 



A REIVED at Van Horn's Well, a station of the El 
Paso and San Antonio Stage Company, inhabited by 
one or two drivers and their families, and a dozen or so 
mules, guarded by a small detail of soldiers. I had in- 
tended to visit the briny lakes on the great plain, and the 
great forests of pine at the base of its mountains, thence 
east to the Pecos ; but I saw that my horse was no longer 
fit for such a journey. A thousand miles of almost con- 
stant travel, much of it under severe thirst and hunger, 
had reduced him to a gaunt, skinny frame, with feeble, 
lack-lustre eyes. He had been failing fast the last few 
days. He seemed to beg me as I stroked his forehead : 
*' Pray stop your wanderings, and give me food and rest." 
The soldiers' horses were not in much better plight than 
my own. I therefore looked around and succeeded in sell- 
ing my horse and his equipments for forty dollars, which 
had cost me one hundred and four. The purchaser im- 
mediately gave him a tub of barley and treated him to a 
thorough rubbing ; during which he looked at me reproach- 
fully, as if he would say : ''Well, sir, this is better than 
anything you gave me among those rocks, and I would 
rather stay with this man than you." When the time 
approached for my departure I went to the soldiers and 
gave them each fifty dollars. They seemed loth to leave 
me, to make their Avay back to Fort Concho alone, and 
said, if I should come this way again and want an escort, 
'' please call for us, and we will follow you to the jumping- 



374 TWO THOUSAND MILES 12!^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 

off place." I believe both had formed a strong attach- 
ment for me ; and, certainly, should I again ride over dan- 
gerous ground with only two attendants, I would choose 
none before them. Had we become involved in a scrape, 
they would have fought like tigers, and with the coolness 
of icebergs. As the stage drove furiously up I took them 
warmly by the hands and bade them adieu. 

This point is four thousand feet above the sea — a 
gradual ascent of one thousand eight hundred feet from 
Presidio. 

The Broncos. — The Great Plain. 

I sat on the seat with the driver to enjoy a wider pros- 
pect; and no sooner had the men who held the mules 
taken their hands from the bits, than away they sprang at 
a lope — sweeping on at the rate of eight miles an hour. 
These mules are from Mexico, and are called broncos. 
They are headstrong, furious and ungovernable, and when 
once under headway they cannot be stopped until they 
reach their regular stations. If a passenger has occasion 
to stop by the roadside, the best the driver can do is to 
rein them out of the road and keep the coach whirling in 
a circle about him. He must get out and back again, at 
imminent risk of breaking his bones. Should some of the 
machinery become disabled by the way, as there could be 
no stop for repairs, total destruction would most surely 
follow. They drive from four to six to a coach. 

We bowl over a great rolling plain, that seems as bound- 
less as the ocean, with distant mountains in sight; and so 
we continue to bowl and bowl for hour after hour, the 
broncos showing no signs of weariness. The road is stone- 
less and delightfully smooth. This is the great Llano 
Estacado, or Staked Plain, from which all the great rivers 
of Texas except the Trinity, Neches, Sabine and San An- 
tonio, derive their waters. It is a singular looking thing : 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 



375 



with table-lands resembling great fortifications, sitting here 
and there upon it. There are no trees, but some thinly 
scattered brush of mesquite, and the grass is generally 
abundant and crisp and sweet. This is reputed to be a 
great desert, inhospitable and deadly ; but the truth is, 
the soil is rich, filled with marl and gypsum, and it needs 
nothing but water at the surface to make it a mighty land. 
How can it be waterless, as is said, when such biUions of 
tons of water flow from its strata every day ? Beneath it 
undoubtedly lies a great fountain, which the Artesian well 
would cause to burst to the top and pour over the fertile ex- 
panse. There is no region in the world more shamefully 
misrepresented. It is capable of sustaining millions of 
cattle, and performing as much for the general good as 
any equal expanse of territory : not as it now is, but as 
the hands of man could easily make it. There are some 
stretches of arid sands, but they are not deep, and the 
plow would soon mingle them with the marly clays beneath, 
converting them into lawns of verdure. 

Stopped at Muerto Springs, thirty miles from Van 
Horn's Well, where, we changed broncos. This place is 
buried amid rugged mountains, at an elevation of five 
thousand one hundred and eighty feet above the sea. It 
means the springs ''of the Dead," and was formerly called 
Dead Man's Hole. Here I was shown a specimen of gold- 
bearing quartz, rich in gold, and was told that it was 
abundant in the neighborhood. The mountains are filled 
with quartz veins, which may be seen from the stage-stand, 
running up their sides like white lines. If the specimen 
that I saw be truly from this region, there is gold here 
undoubtedly. 

Arrayed in White.— The Monarch. 
A few miles from Muerto a group of remarkable moun- 
tains appears, whose lofty tops I had beheld from afar off. 



376 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

At }i distance they look like great cones of white cloud 
resting upon the horizon. These mountains are seven 
thousand feet high, and are composed of pure white quartz, 
which gives them the appearance of being always wrapped 
in snow. They are beautiful, and to my knowledge their 
like does not exist in the world, except in other ranges in 
this same region. They are unnamed and should have 
beautiful names. The stage-driver called them " the 
White Ladies ; " but they are too tremendously big to be 
called ladies. I had an ardent desire to visit these moun- 
tains, but of course could not. The driver said : " They 
are full of gold, just like that you saw at Muerto." Why 
is it that Texas will not appropriate some money, and 
employ some distinguished scientist to make an explora- 
tion of this remarkable and wonderful region ? * 

And yet a few miles further, the monarch of all 
the region lifts his head higli above all the visible 
mountains, and grows higher and broader as we approach 
him ; blue in the distance and grey or black as we draw 
nearer. He is seven thousand five hundred feet high, 
or more than a thousand feet higher than the vaunted 
Mount Washington of New Hampshire. He is the loftiest 
elevation known east of the Rocky Mountains. From his 
appearance I judge him to be granitic, and doubt not that 
he is one of the original foot-stools. ^* They crowned him 
long ago." He, too, is unnamed. Let him be named 
after that Texan who shall first teach the Texans to love 
Nature in Texas, and appreciate their grand State as they 

* It is held that under the present State constitution it is unlawful to appro- 
priate money for a geological survey. One of the leading members of the conven- 
tion that formed the constitution declared in that body : " Geology is a humbug, 
and I know it to be so ! " It is most remarkable that the people of Texas can 
be imposed upon by such conceited ignoramuses. But the convention agreed 
with him, and the result of it is that probably as rich a mineral region as there is 
on earth, must remain idle and unknown until explored by private enterprise. 
It seems to be the pride and policy of other communities to make their resources 
known, but of these latter-day statesmen to hide the resources of Texas. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HOESEBACK. 377 

should ; and there can be no appreciation of it by those 
who do not love Nature within it. 

The range or group of mountains in which this giant 
sits, is really but one gigantic mountain with a multitude 
of peaks ; their apparent base being at an elevation of at 
least a thousand feet above the subjacent plains. They 
are well-timbered with cedar, oaks and some pines. 



VI. 



FoKT Davis. — Man's Ikhumakitt. 

AERIVED at Fort Davis, and here found myself in 
an evil plight, which for a while greatly stirred up 
my feelings. I had performed, at each county-seat that I 
visited on my route, a very important service for a certain 
corporation, which service the said corporation had vainly 
tried, even for a high consideration, to get some one else to 
perform. All who had been approached refused it, say- 
ing it was worth a man's life to attempt it, unless under 
escort of a company of soldiers. As it would not much 
inconvenience me, I agreed to perform the service for a 
part of my expenses and a right to draw u2:)on the presi- 
dent for this if I should run short of cash on the trip. 
At Concho I saw that I should need more money, and drew 
for the modest sum of three hundred dollars, making the 
draft returnable at Fort Davis. After paying the costs of 
this service and settling with my soldiers, I arrived at Fort 
Davis with hardly a dollar. My first care, therefore, after 
a night's rest, was to visit the party to whom the draft had 
been made returnable. I introduced myself and inquired 
about the draft. ^^ Yes, sir," said he. He then took the 
draft from a letter and handed it to me without another 
word, and across the face was written '^ Not accepted," 
signed by the president of the corporation. There is no 
language that can express the indignation I felt at that 
moment. I had performed the dangerous service faith- 
fully, paying the cost of putting upon record at every 
county-seat I visited, a long document of some fifty pages 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 379 

of legal cnp, and here were my thanks and reward ! Here 
I was left, in a ^Hiowling wilderness," hundreds of miles 
from ^^ nowhere," ia a small community utterly strange 
to me, without a dollar to buy bread, or even a horse to 
bear me out of it, and my credit rendered hopeless by the 
return upon me of dishonored paper ! I thought it the 
ghastliest deed within my experience of men, and so I 
shall always think. What concern had they for me, after 
I had performed their work and paid for it ? " He is an 
orano-e that hath been sucked ! Ah, he will be killed ; 
he will never return from this tour, and this will be so 
much money saved. 'A penny saved is a penny got.'" 
Ye spirits, who vex those whose consciences are dead, and 
whose souls are lost in Mammon, remember not this thing 
against them when the day of account cometh, and your 
work begins ! They are ignorant and know not what they 
do. They damn themselves when they think to make 
themselves. At that moment I became convinced that the 
project in which they are engaged must come to an igno- 
minious failure upon their hands ; for there is but one 
monument which such sublime notions of integrity and 
honor as this can erect, and that is a monument of shame 
and failure. 

But my position seemed so disastrous that I had little 
heart even to moralize. What must I do now ? The only 
thing is to stay here until I can draw upon my own funds, 
and it will take three weeks to do this. But who will feed 
and lodge me, a stranger, so long a time, when I am with- 
out a dollar ? I resolved to visit the commandant of the 
post, tell him my awkward position, and ask him to put 
me in good standing with the inn-keeper till such a time. 
While sitting in the inn, contemplating the probable effect 
of this appeal to a total stranger, I heard the name of a 
certain lieutenant mentioned in a group of men who were 
talking near me. I remembered that I had a slight ac- 



380 TWO THOUSAJq"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

quaintance with a lieutenant of that name, and asked if 
his initials were not so and so ? " Yes, sir," said the 
man ; "that is his name, and he is stationed at this post." 
I determined to see this officer first, and, calling upon 
him, he recognized me at once. I told him my distress 
and asked for a loan of two hundred dollars. " I will sup- 
ply you, sir, with pleasure," said he. I felt a mountain 
lifted off my heart. He not only gave me the money, hut 
introduced me to some ladies of the post and did all he 
could to make my stay agreeable. Thus did this accom- 
plished officer do for the sake of humanity and a very 
slight personal acquaintance, that which those for whom 
I had performed an arduous and dangerous service, would 
not do for the sake of honor and in payment of a just debt, 
but so far as they could, had turned me out to starvation. 
'^Look upon this picture, and then upon that." 

I said to the officer : " Well, sir, had I not been so for- 
tunate as to meet you here, would not my position have 
been a dreadful one ? " 

"Oh no," said he ; "you would have had nothing to 
do but to call upon the commandant as you did upon me, 
and state your case. Do you suppose tlie officers would 
have allowed you to be cast adrift in this wilderness and 
reduced to extremities, right under the shadow of the flag ? 
No, indeed, sir : they would have come to your relief as 
readily as I have done." 

Fort Davis is the county-seat of Presidio county, as 
well as a military post of the United States. The long 
document in my possession was to be recorded here also, 
and I debated within myself a moment as to whether I 
should use a part of the money I had borrowed from the 
lieutenant, to pay for this, or leave it undone, and thus 
put the considerate corporation to the expense of sending 
here to have it done. I soon made up my mind to return 
good for evil, and had the big document recorded, paying 



TWO THOUSAISTD MILES IJT TEXAS 0:N" HORSEBACK. 381 

for it out of the lieutenant's money. '* Now look upon 
this picture, then upon that ! " Would they have done 
the same for me ? Even the credulous Apella would not 
believe it. 

The position of Fort Davis is extremely picturesque 
and peculiar. It has borrov/ed nothing from any other 
scenery, but is its own original. It sits in a deep green 
valley wherein fountains bubble, and the vine, the flowers 
and the fruits of the field flourish .by irrigation. It is a 
green spot in the wilderness, and ever a green spot in the 
memory of all who see it. Mountains in fantastic shapes, 
like towers and minarets and domes, look upon it from all 
sides, and in the distance the Monarch and the White 
Ladies lift their brows into the clouds. The most won- 
derful scenery in Texas is here displayed, and the moun- 
tains contain minerals and gems. It sits at an elevation 
of five thousand feet, and the air is all sweetness, purity 
and elasticity. He that breathes it rejoices, and seems to 
feel new life. To those who are sick with the lungs, what 
place can match this ? For the elevation is sulSicient to 
give all that is best, and not enough for that rarity that 
is hurtful. One must be poor in resources who cannot 
find abundant amusement in so grand and strange a coun- 
try as this. The necessity of carrying arms and the 
suspicion that Comanches and Apaches may be about, are 
only a sort of seasoning that gives zest and vigor to the 
limbs and courage to the heart. The population is per- 
haps a hundred, exclusive of the military, and one can find 
pleasant society. 

The annual rainfall here is from twelve to twenty 
inches, most of which falls during July and August. It 
has been observed that the rainfall has constantly increased 
for a series of years. The summer temperature is from 
seventy to seventy-five, and rarely exceeds the latter figure. 
How delightful "for summer residence ! In winter it is 



382 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 

sometimes severely cold, during the electrical northers — 
mercury having once been known to sink to 15° below 
zero ; but comfortable quarters are readily secured and. 
mesquite roots are abundant. The usual winter tempera- 
ture I can hardly distinguish from other portions of 
Texas ; for though it is dead winter, I take walks with the 
ladies after sunset and enjoy them greatly. 

There is a steam flouring-mill here, and considerable 
quantities of very fine wheat are raised in the Tayah val- 
ley, a few miles north of this.* 

* Since my visit Fort Davis has increased in attractions greatly, and now 
enjoys a weekly newspaper. 



VII. 



LiMPiA Canyon. 

AT noon of the third day, I took the first down-stage 
and travelled eastward through Limpia Canyon. 
This is a natural pass through the Apache Mountains, and 
the only one that is practical to carriages and horsemen. 
It derives its name from Limpia Creek which passes through 
the canyon. It is iSfteen miles in length, its greatest 
breadth about five hundred feet, and it sometimes narrows 
to fifty feet. On each side rises a black, precipitous wall 
of basalt, often a thousand feet or more in height. Some- 
times the creek passes through a canyon within the can- 
yon, so deep, dark and narrow that one may look from the 
brink and see no bottom below. The stage sometimes 
passes on the very edges of these abysses, and the slightest 
false step would precipitate all to destruction. While 
rid ing along these, it seemed that my life hung by an ex- 
ceedingly slender thread, and often I shivered. It is an 
exceedingly Avild-looking-place, and there is no exit or 
entrance save by this road. No lizard could climb those 
dark, glassy walls. I said to the driver : *^ This is cer- 
tainly a dangerous place. If one should be attacked here, 
what possible chance of escape ? " " It is the safest place," 
said he, "this side of San Antonio, No Indians were ever 
known to enter this canyon. They want a chance to 
retreat and slip out, like other warriors, and you'll never 
catch them coming into this trap." 

These walls, though perpendicular and composed of the 
same material, are never columnar like the Palisades, but 



384 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 

are solid, massive stone, without seam or rent. It is one 
of the greatest outpourings of igneous matter in the world. 
The canyon is nearly as straight as a bee-line, and seems a 
mo»t singular freak of nature. Why should this great 
mass of molten volcanic matter have separated into two 
long perpendicular w^alls, leaving the deep, smootli vale 
between ? Did the Almighty command the great hissing 
fiery mass to separate and stand apart, to make a road for 
coming man through the mountains, as he commanded 
the waters of the Dead Sea to open and make a road for 
Moses ? This little babbling stream could never have cut 
this vast chasm through this infinitely compacted stone. 
If it has taken the tremendous Niagara seventy thousand 
years to pound its way seven miles through seamed and 
stratified limestone, how long would it take this brook to 
wear this great chasm, fifteen miles long and often a thou- 
sand feet deep, through solid basalt ? I estimate thunder- 
ing Niagara to be at least a million times greater than 
Limpia, and this basalt at least four times harder than the 
Niagara limestone ; thus, if these estimates ai*e correct, 
and Limpia Canyon has been cut by Limpia Creek, it has 
taken it two thousand eight hundred millions of years to 
do the job I Reductio ad absurdum ! 

Barilla Springs. — A Norther on the Staked 

Plain. 

The Pass opened on a great plain, which I recognized 
at once as my old familiar friend, the Llano Estacado. At 
a short distance we stopped at Barilla Springs, to change 
broncos and get supper. This place has a singularly lone- 
some and dejected look, as if it had lost its mother. Look- 
ing around, I perceived that it had an unusually large 
cemetery for so diminutive a population. It is accounted 
as a sort of dead-hole, a place of danger, and these graves 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 385 

mark the resting place of travellers or employes of the 
stage company who were slain by Indians. It sits under 
the shadow of the impenetrable mountains, from whose 
cliffs the savages may spy out a long way on the plain ; 
attacking and destroying weak parties, and hiding from 
strong ones. It was with a feeling of relief that we de- 
parted from this place, riding out on the great plain in 
the falling darkness. 

At eleven o'clock a furious norther suddenly leaped in 
the window of the stage-coach, and saluted us with a whiff 
of his frozen breath. Instantly the windows were closed, 
and I wrapped myself up in overcoat and blankets, but 
notwithstanding all the weight of wool, I shook and suf- 
fered terribly. The norther here had full force : it swept 
hundreds of miles down an inclined plane, without an 
obstacle to retard its impetuous career. I judged its de- 
scent to be between forty and fifty miles an hour : an in- 
cessant, pitiless, frozen torrent of wind. For much of the 
way we rode athwart this torrent, and it shrieked and 
howled among the iron and leather fixtures of the coach 
like a maniac. The broncos, stung with cold, became fu- 
rious, and dashed over the plain at a break-neck speed, which 
would have insured our destruction had it been elsewhere 
than in the plain. Reached Leon Springs at three p. m. 
where we entered an adobe house and warmed, and drank 
villainous coffee made of water from the salty lake. 



386 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 



VIII. 

Slept none. Passed Fort Stockton ; passed Escondido 
Springs : — ^fountains that rise on the great plain and send 
away a beautiful stream, which wanders a little way and 
is lost. Reached the lordly, silent Pecos, rolling his tur- 
bid flood impetuously as of old. Crossed on a pontoon 
bridge. This is many miles above where I crossed it west- 
ward bound. Near here is a salt lake on the j)lain, whose 
shores and bottom are said to be pure granulated salt. 



IX. 

Bowled onward and bowled onward, sleeping little or 
none. It takes one who has the toughness of a light-wood 
knot to stand this. Passed Fort Concho ; stopped at Ben 
Ficklen. This is the countv-seat of Tom Green countv — 
a single county larger than some entire States. Here Ben 
Ficklen of the ante-bellum California Overland Mail Line 
built his great company-shops at a cost of over one hun- 
dred thousand dollars. They stand quite untenanted on 
the prairie. Here is the great barley farm of Texas, em- 
bracing several hundred acres, irrigated from the Concho. 
Yield said to be from fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre. 
This is sold to government for use of the cavalry at Fort 
Concho. 



rv\^0 THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 387 

X. 

Bowled on and bowled on, night after night and day 
after day, at last reaching San Antonio after five days and 
five nights of continual travel, prostrated, collasped, and 
used up : felt that I had been dragged through briars and 
b€aten with soot bags : felt miserable, intolerable : felt 
worse than he who coraeth off a drunk. Took iodging at 
a delightful hotel, and occupied my bed thirty-nine hours 
in succession. Got enough of good sleep for once.* 



XL 

Took stage and rattled north-west. Passed New 
Braunfels ; passed sparkling Comal, fairy San Marcos, 
proud-rolling Guadalupe, majestic Colorado, and entered 
Austin, eighty miles, the capitol of Texas. Had a m.ind 
to call on Governor Coke, of whom I had heard people 
speak in the most extravagant praise. If this gentleman 
does not become President of the United States he will 
disappoint thousands of admirers. Austin is pretty — built 
on more hills than Eome, and they are all picturesque. 
North of here is a wild, romantic country of cedar-covered 
hills and mountains : in other directions, a prairie that 
rolls in gigantic undulations. But the Capitol, or State 
House, is unworthy all this beauty. It looks like an old 
stone box, and the noble hill on which it stands renders 
its ugliness the more conspicuous and deformed. The 
grand State of Texas should have a better thing than that. 

* When I made this trip on the El Paso stage, the coaches were furnished by 
Government with a military guard. Afterwards this guard was withdrawn for a 
time, and the quick result was that the stage was attacked near Mustang Water 
Holes, the driver killed, and the mails robbed. There were no passengers. All 
the money in the mails was taken, but checks were let alone. Indians were seen 
the day previous on the Pecos. This leaves little doubt that they were from 
Mexico, and knew the value of greenbacks, or that they were attended by white 
American rascals, which is not unfrequently the case with these Indian raids 
into Texas. 



xn. 

COKCLUSIOK. 

DID not visit the Governor, as my clothes were too 
travel- worn and ragged. But jumped on the Texas 
Central and whirled southward at thirty miles an hour. 
Arrived in Houston, bronzed and begrimed, and was 
warmly greeted by many friends, and by none so warmly 
and cordially as those who had dishonored my draft and 
turned me out to starve : so warm were they that I could 
hardly comprehend that they had dishonored my draft. 
" Ha ! ha ! ha ! old fellow, are you back at last ? Ha ! 
ha! ha! that was a wonderful trip." And though my 
hands had grown tough, they could scarcely stand that 
squeeze. 

And now I bid him that hath followed me adieu, not 
without some regret. If it has been as pleasant a task to 
him to read, as it has been to me to write these wanderings, 
it is reward enough for me. I have ridden on horseback 
all over Texas, and have written of the State from a stand- 
point of knowledge thus obtained, and therefore the title 
of these presents is not a misnomer. See how unwil- 
lingly I bid you adieu ; and judge therefrom how glad I 
shall be to see you again, "if he that write th now may 
scribble more." 



TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS Ois' HORSEBACK. 389 



A NOTE ON BUFFALOES. 

While writing of the American Bison on page 283, I stated that 
they bring forth two calves at a birth. I gave- this on the authority 
of one who has seen much more of the buflfalo than I have — not 
without much doubt of its correctness, which I intended to express 
in a note in the proper place, but forgot to do so. If the statement 
is correct, all who have written of the buffalo, as far as I have ob- 
served, are wrong, and it would be a remarkable exception to the 
rule in the bos family. It is probable my informant was led into 
his very firm belief by encountering a phenomenal pair of buffalo 
twins. Still I will not positively contradict him. His statement 
may go for what it is worth, with these doubts thrown around it. 

But even if the buffaloes always produced twins, it would not 
long delay their inevitable doom. While I write — Dec. 5, 1877 — 
there are not less than five hundred strangers slaughtering the 
buffalo in Texas, besides the frontiersman and Indian. It is a con- 
tinual fusillade upon them, and the great plains are red with their 
blood. A large part of this slaughter is a mere wantonness. It is 
to be hoped that the next Texas legislature will pass a law to stop 
these destroyers. The buffalo must go anyhow, but let us keep 
him with us as long as we can. 



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